Monday mood (20)

John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallott, 1888.

Disarming the weapons of massive distraction

Attention is what draws us out of ourselves to experience and engage in the world. The word is often accompanied by a verb—attention needs to be grabbed, captured, mobilized, attracted, or galvanized. Reflected in such language is an acknowledgement of how attention is the essential precursor to action. The founding father of psychology William James provided what is still one of the best working definitions:

It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.

(...) Attention is a complex interaction between memory and perception, in which we continually select what to notice, thus finding the material which correlates in some way with past experience. In this way, patterns develop in the mind. We are always making meaning from the overwhelming raw data.

Chamem-me ludita. O texto de Madeleine Bunting é longo, mas merece toda a atenção.

The fury of frightened people

Popular opinion has it that people who react as stubbornly as I’ve trained myself to have real courage, which consists precisely in overcoming fear. But I don’t agree. We fearful-belligerents place at the top of all our fears the fear of losing self-respect. We value ourselves very highly, and in order not to have to face our own humiliation, we are capable of anything. In other words, we drive away our fears not out of altruism but out of egotism. 

(...) I’m learning, like a character in Conrad, to accept fear, even to exhibit it with self-mockery. I began to do this when I realised that my daughters got scared if I defended them from dangers – small, large or imaginary – with excessive ardour. What perhaps should be feared most is the fury of frightened people.

Elena Ferrante, aqui.

Monday mood (19)

Alex Katz, Folding Chair, 1959.

Maya Angelou dixit

A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.

Tudo está bem quando acaba bem.

A minha primeira ida a Paris foi em 2003. Acabada de sair do avião, dirigi-me aos tapetes de recolha de bagagem com a naturalidade que andar quatro anos em pêndulo constante entre o continente e a Madeira me deu. A minha mala tardava em aparecer, mas uma volteava ali desde o início. Não dei muita importância, mas o aeroporto deu. Em menos de um ai, isolaram o perímetro, choveram polícias, choveram militares, fez-se um silêncio terrível - só interrompido pela entrada do atrasado dono da maleta e subsequente ovação universal. Isto para dizer que daí para cá, cada vez mais, prevenir um ataque é importante. Pode causar incómodos, mas a alternativa crédula incomoda mais. Pelo menos a mim.

We are the way we are

We are the way we are, we’re framed by our parents and the particular set of anxieties – social, political, and others that we have – so that one begins to feel we’re all carrying around a very fixed inheritance; as if there’s a bottle that’s filled up, or half filled up, or a quarter filled up at our birth and that level never changes, which is a terrible thing. That can’t be true, can it?

James Wood, aqui.