🐇 & 🕰️
time blindness/some NYC Romance
Frantic white bunnies and ticking pocket watches the size of small children have been jumping me in my dreams again.
Aka, I’ve been deep in the trenches of the worst lack of focus in ages and my subconscious is screaming at me to get on with it.
In my adventures of being a Poky Little Puppy, I stumbled upon this episode of Charlie Rose from 1993, where he was interviewing Martin Scorsese. Around the 19:45 mark, Marty talks about appreciating the slower pace of life whilst filming The Age of Innocence, which takes place around 1870.
He called the speed of commercials and music/promo spots violent and desensitizing. He also spoke of not liking MTV.
It doesn’t speak to me anymore. When it first came on, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. But I began to question the validity of groups that became famous as musical groups because of the video. Where is the music? What are the lyrics?
1993! Over 30 years ago!
Our attention/focus problems are not new.
Hearing Scorsese lament about the violent speed of advertisements brought me a bit of solace and a nice chuckle. Every artist across time has grappled with the introduction of new attention-sucking inventions and maintaining room for their art.
I myself feel pummeled by the speed of advertisements, notifications, the horrifying news coming from the White House regularly, and my writing deadlines (I may be stumbling into self-sabotage territory because BISH, WHAT IS YOU DOING?—Me to Me).
After weeks of setting tasks, falling down rabbit holes, and digging myself out hours later…I finally got sick of myself and purchased a Time Timer.
I have a problem with time blindness, but only in a specific area. I’ve never had a problem showing up on time. I’ve never missed a flight in my life. I know exactly how long it takes to paint my face, but when it comes to delegating my free time, especially when I’m reading and writing, I become so lost in the sauce that time ceases to exist. If I know I have a day to myself, 8 hours can go by, and it will feel like 45 minutes.
Lately, I have been losing large chunks of precious writing time because I get distracted by an article online, which leads me to another article, and on and on. Or I’ll find some random notebook from years ago version of me that I started to read, and before I knew it, an hour had passed, and it felt like 5 minutes.
Tracking time visually has helped me stay focused instead of following my incessant curiosity for useless fun facts like how long Cher and Val Kilmer dated.
My Poky Little Puppy syndrome has been at its worst, and this little square dictator of time has changed my writing life.
Get one. It might change your life, too.
I do not view NYC through rose-tinted glasses and am not blindly in love with her. That ship sailed my first time living here in my 20s when I got