Getting attention is a wonderful thing, at least it feels that way. Afterall, we’ve been seeking attention since we came kicking and screaming out of the womb. It came naturally, didn’t it? Somewhere along the line, we became convinced that this is what we needed to do in order to accept that we were good enough, smart enough, funny enough, fast enough, courageous enough, faithful enough or successful enough. We believed what everyone else believed and never really had the time, the skills or the need to understand why.
Attention came manifested in physical gestures (eye contact and head-nodding, stroking, back-patting, kisses, wild love-making and big hugs). It came to us in the written word (letters of reference, recommendations, electronic mails, greeting cards and certificates…now framed and displayed on office walls or tucked in desk drawers). Attention was expressed through the voices of others. (cheering from the stands, congratulatory remarks, toasts, thank-you speeches) Attention was given through gifts laden with romantic innuendo, emotion or price, whichever you seemed to need most at the time, in order to feel as though you were ‘getting enough attention’. As I type all of this…I find myself even asking, “So? What’s wrong with any of these things? It ALL felt soooo good!” Hmmm…well, here lies my assertion…and please, remember, I am pretty much spilling my guts here. I’m not over-analyzing my words. I have a very sparse readership. I just need to belt out my disjointed thoughts for no reason at all!
To answer my own queries… “It felt so good. What’s wrong with getting attention?”…I’d have to respond with these thoughts. I am no longer a child. I have, these 56 years, learned that it was enough to have lived my life to honour my own self. “To thine own self be true.” Paintings continue to cry out of my spirit, as an expression of my deepest self. My daughter dances out of a soulful place that must be expressed, for her self. This is the ‘stuff’ of life. There is a divine ticking within us. Divinity is not to be messed with. Keep straight the path! It is with humility that I even explore these things today. Especially, since I’ve been ousted. :0)
Today, a blog entry that struck me was this one, ph.d in creative writing How Deborah Fries Became a Writer. This paragraph, in particular, causes me to go forward painting, writing and hiking, with enthusiasm and fearlessness.
Words gleaned from the interview with Deborah Fries,
“And I am inspired by all writers and artists who lose themselves in what they do; that is, they become unselfconscious in relationship to their work. When I was in graduate school, I had the pleasurable assignment of taking Grace Paley to lunch before she gave a reading at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I don’t remember much about the lunch, except that she seemed familiar and easy to be around. But that night in the middle of her reading, a tooth – a removable one – came out, and she looked at it, put it aside on the podium and continued reading.”
and this response…
“5. What would you say in a short letter to an aspiring writer?
Given that my daughter recently began writing short fiction, this is something I think about often. I believe that in our multi-media, internet content-saturated lives, it’s in many ways harder now to pull the signal out of the noise and to hear your own voice, let alone develop it. It’s important to keep the chatter at bay. I’d tell any aspiring writer to sharpen her observational skills, to collect real experiences, to invest in understanding human nature. I’d tell her to read, write, read, write – to engage in a kind of literary interval training. It’s important to study craft but it’s equally important to increase your seeing power. I’d tell her rejection is meaningless, and that if you write something you wouldn’t want your mother to read, it will probably get published.”
While searching google under the following words, ‘getting attention’, these are the first ten references. Much as the ‘being ousted’ search…this short list really causes me to wonder.
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pagingdrthornton.com/…/memoirs-lots-media-attention–good-news-b…Cached
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UndoMy memoir’s getting lots of media attention: good news and bad news. Written by yvonnethornton on November 22nd, 2011. Yes, that’s me on the cover Living, …
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mikeurbonas.com/…/job-seekers-getting–attention-the-good-the-bad-…Cached
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Undo6 Aug 2009 – Job Seekers Getting Attention: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Source: evo_terra (Flickr). I recently came across CornOnTheJob.com, a blog …
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Undo15 Feb 2008 – Bloggers are often looking for ways to get more people to read their … You’re at: Home • Features • Good Attention, Bad Attention • Filed as …
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catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.htmlCached
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UndoThe best way to get a rapid and responsive answer is to ask it like a person with …. is your golden opportunity to attract qualified experts’ attention in around 50 characters or fewer. ….. Then: here’s a bad followup question: “What’s a zentry? …
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helpyourselftherapy.com/topics/attentn.htmlCached
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UndoMost of us are pretty good at getting this kind of attention. … to absorb and feel good about the attention we get, … feels at least a little bad at the moment. …
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Undo29 Nov 2011 – If you want to get a nice guy to like you, you usually start off as friends. If he says … Being yourself is good but don’t do something crazy to get his attention! … Don’t take it wrong if he says something bad about what you like. …
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abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id…Cached
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Undo21 Feb 2011 – Those with good credit are getting a lot more attention from credit card companies these days.
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shibashake.com/…/shiba-inu-personality-good–bad-traits –
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UndoWe present the good, bad, and quirky aspects of the Shiba Inu personality. … A Shiba Inu can get you a lot of attention and open doors to many social …
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http://www.ehow.com/video_4984658_getting-students-pay…8 Aug 2011 – 2 min
Students pay closer attention in a class that offers a variation of lecture, discussion, questions and activities …
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