A Matter of Perspective
For the July issue of the TWC Courier, I wrote a story about keeping your brain active.
As we age this becomes more and more important. Reading, writing, ‘rithmatic, often go by the wayside.
The saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” is so true.
I had kind of let reading go by the wayside. It’s not that I had forgotten “how” to read. It’s more like I had forgotten “why” to read.
That needed to change. Reading had always served as a refuge for me. Now it felt like a burden. One that I only trudged through when it was absolutely necessary.
A friend of mine gave me a book to read written by Stephen King—my favorite author. I greedily consumed the first 50 pages like they were food to a starving pauper. And then I put the book down and became distracted by a myriad of technology. Soon, the book was buried under a week’s worth of unopened mail, hastily jotted story ideas, and receipts.
I felt a twinge of guilt every time the book made its way to the surface—swimming ever upward against a tide of other distractions. Still, the book had remained untouched.
My writing had also gone by the wayside.
This month is Camp NaNoWriMo and I haven’t penned a single word in my book!
UGH!
I blame a lot of this on my cell phone and my inability to tear myself away from the games on it.
Yes, I downloaded the games and in recent days I have deleted several of those time stealers. However, there are several that remain.
I will keep the crossword app because that does require my brain to think. But the others need to go. I keep telling myself that I will keep them and just not play them so much, but I know myself better than that. I will play them in the middle of the night if I don’t play them during the day.
I have an addiction to games. But for this month of July (or the rest of it anyway), my intention is to spend no more than one hour per day playing games and to devote those other hours toward writing and reading. I might even slide in some math!
I do force myself to do simple equations in my head instead of relying on a calculator to do the easy work for me.
These three essential skills are the ones I plan to hone this summer. What about you?
