Involuntary attention

Involuntary attention…  I was on a plane the other day.   Have been on hundreds of plane trips and the initial flight information given on emergency procedures has become so hum-drum that I barely listen.  In fact most of the time it sounds like the teacher from Charlie Brown, “Wahn,wahn, wahn, wahn, wahn.”  And this was like all others, Wahn,wahn, wahn, wahn, wahn.”  That is until we were about ready to take off, we were building speed, I was doing homework and all of a sudden WHAM, the brakes went on and I was jolted into reality.  My attention then became voluntary as I wanted to know if we were ok and what the heck just happened.  Attention takes place in short increments.  So many times, especially if it is something we have heard before or it is something we are not interested in, we listen but not really, perhaps we “go to Jamaica” for a visit.  So how do we listen?  We make a conscious decision to pay attention.

The Fur-Kid