Why Distractions Matter
Should you feel guilty for escaping reality at times like these?
I’m a stickler for pain, apparently, because through all of this I still check Twitter daily. I mean, I don’t have a Facebook so, like, let me live. There are no shortage of opinions out there right now. Some strong ones. To be honest, you’re allowed to have your opinions regardless of what others think of it. That’s the whole point of an opinion in the first place, something I’m inclined to say we forget at times. Oddly enough, a gathering of similar opinions leads to community, and those communities are the basis of a lot of the things we as humans build upon. They’re called social networks, for crying out loud. OK, so what the hell is the point being made here, you ask?
You probably feel like there’s a lot, A LOT, coming at you right now. COVID-19, the healthcare system, the economy, your desire to go back to normalcy, your career, your job security…the health of your loved ones. If you allow yourself to be swallowed by the onslaught of information, you will be overwhelmed. On the flip side, the mind is a beautiful, and holy shit, incredibly frustrating thing at the same time. The never ending hole of “well if I DON’T pay attention to these important issues how do I justify my being?” I say all these things not to bum you out, but to lay the common ground before we can continue with this conversation, there’s a lot going on.
This past Sunday, ESPN aired the first 2 episodes of “The Last Dance”, a 10 part docu-series on the final season of the great Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 90s. While it didn’t exactly reach Game of Thrones series finale numbers (still salty about that final season, for the record), 6.1 million viewers is not bad, considering the rest of the world was getting it on Netflix the next day. It did, on Twitter at least, feel like it had gripped the attention of the entire platform, with literal hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of unique tweets on the topic. So, as with all things that command attention, you have people asking “why?”
But there’s a specific “why” I want to address with this, because there were quite a number of responses to this phenomenon that were all in some way addressing this point: “why/how can you all be thinking about sports, PAST sports at that, at a time like this?” I don’t know about you, but my gut reaction to this was “you’ve got to be shitting me, am I not allowed to turn the brain off for AN HOUR?” Frustration, and yeah, some anger. Which is why I waited a few days before writing this. Because my reaction was defensive, but I also realized that the root of the question from most of those people questioning the importance of doing this, right now, also comes from a place of frustration. Remember my point about community? No matter what your reaction to The Last Dance was, you start in a communal place: the community of talking about it with other sports fans, the local community, the community of staying focused on the tough issues, the community of “there are other things I care about right now.”
It’s ok to not understand something. You don’t HAVE to “get” every single niche and topic that people are into. What isn’t ok, is judging or trying to prescribe someone else’s coping mechanism, especially when said coping mechanism is harmless (relatively). Here’s the thing, everyone is struggling right now, so not only are you not helping others with a guilt trip, intentionally or not, but you also aren’t helping yourself. Think about the core implication to yourself of this question “how could you possibly care about that at a time like this?” Not only does this present guilt and shame to the receiving party, but it’s now an added stress to you as the purveyor of the question “am I crazy? am I missing something?” Maybe I’m completely off base here, this is just another opinion after all, but you and I are not built for nor prepared to process the amount of information overload we are receiving at a time of crisis, one in particular that doesn’t appear to have an end. The dreaded unknown. Most previous crises we’ve all encountered had an almost immediate end and we dealt with mostly contained fallout. We didn’t know exactly what was under the rubble, but you had a full picture of it. This time is different, we weren’t prepared for the mental effects of this.
I mentioned trying to strike a balance a few weeks ago, knowing when to turn off. So I will tell you this, it is not irresponsible to find a distraction right now. You are no less valuable for the level of impact and contribution you can provide. You don’t have to compare yourself to others. Yes, count your blessings, yes, don’t completely ignore what’s happening, but those issues aren’t going to just go away or get better by spending your entire waking consciousness to it. This is why those distractions are so important. Those moments where you come up for air as the information and issue flood embraces us all. An additional breath to help you get through to the next day, the next week, the next hour. Until your next breath, and you do it again. Survival. It isn’t pretty, but you hold on long enough to get to the other side where you can rest a little easier, and we can go back to the things we’ve taken for granted, this time with a brand new sense of appreciation.
