A boy feeds a goat (five things on a Tuesday).

Attention!

We talked about what it means to give attention, or more accurately, to invest attention. This is an ongoing discussion, dialog, and conversation. I believe strongly that the ability to understand the importance of attention will be a defining trait of those in the upcoming generation who find success - as they define it to be, in terms of using knowledge and skills to build a life of contentment, service, and purpose - and those who do not.

We are all capable of giving attention. We can choose to invest in alt coins, or stick it in a bank or stock market or business, or simply pick up a wad of cash and burn it.. Likewise, we can choose to invest our time - our attention - to dialogs and conversations, to learning and teaching, to playing and developing a skill or body of knowledge or deeper understanding of relationships…or we can stick eyes downward to that screen hyper-flashing TikTok videos, or the platform du jour.

Attention.

A boy feeds a goat.

He trotted out to the field in oversize rubber boots, a fistful of food, and a giant grin. His friend, a goat, came to greet him and accept the proffering hand. I hung back and watched, and loved.

In the woods.

I lurked behind a tree and watched several play in the forest; finally erupting with a terrifying shriek that scared no one but myself. Then they came in and dug up apparatus to make pretty marks on paper, and they drew and drew and drew and moved their brain shadows into a more sunlit reality and I loved.

Rod Serling (Wherever there was sin, wherever there was strife).

I watched an old Twilight Zone episode with our 11-year old. I love his love of the old, of the classic. This was The Howling Man. Season 2, episode 5 (1960). Chilling.

Tetris IRL.

There is a little game with these little pieces that involves fitting them into a square, within the constraints of the frame. Our daughter is quite adept at it. One of her younger brothers has studied her strategy carefully over time, and has been poring over the game, figuring it out for himself. I love the way that people learn from others, and the sneaky learning that happens around life lived well.

She read, and read, and read.

She sat on the couch with her four children, reading through book after book, and they melted into her, craning and peering and grabbing a page to examine more closely. I loved it, and sometimes you love the familiar the more frequent it is. This is such.