Peas for Degrees.

January 23, 2013 by nowordsjustthoughts 2 Comments

This week in my rebellion against dumbing down, it is my goal to get through and finish an article from the New Yorker magazine. For a fleeting minute, I even think about getting a subscription to the magazine. (Magazine subscriptions are really cheap here, you buy a years worth for the same price as what you would pay for one or two issues on the supermarket stand). But for now, I will be happy with just an article. After having children my attention span has shrunk to the miniscule size of a baby pea. One of those ones that drops out onto the floor and rolls into a corner, forgotten and shrivelled, hard and dried to the core. I find it as I am sweeping out the kitchen of my mind, look at it with fondness and remember…

How did this happen? I am a university educated woman. When did I lose that shiny green, minted, flavourful zesty intellect? Why has my attention span now turned into something on par with “Dug”, the dog from the Disney movie Up. SQUIRREL! I do not watch many movies anymore, infact there isn’t alot that really interests me. I think the last movie that I really enjoyed and watched without absent-mindedly browsing on my ipad was The Hunger Games. I do it all the time. I pick up the ipad, start browsing, oooh, I have snoopy dollars to collect, or there’s a sale…before i know it, half of the movie is gone. I am even conflicted about liking The Hunger Games because I firmly believe in reading a book before watching the movie as they are always better, but I am giving in because I know I’ll never get time to read it first. Same situation with Twilight and Harry Potter.

It takes me forever to read a book because I cannot read without feeling like I should be doing house work and if the kids are home well we all know how that ends. So I think i’ll just go check facebook for 5 minutes, see what everyone is upto and then go start on [insert ridiculously mind numbing chore here]. I choose books with short chapters, that move fast, it still ends with me losing concentration. And if I am not careful? Ooops, lets just say that the minty green fresh pea is now mush, squashed under my own foot, the heal of reality and burden of schedule.

Today brings no words, just thoughts on – LOOK SQUIRREL! how one maintains intellect in the age of mindless electronic portable devices and the crazy time wasting apps that have me raging, despairing and antipathising all at once. Mushy pea soup anyone?