Seeing and being in the presence of good behavior provides an important ethical tool. Watching someone who does something well is an excellent way to learn. This is true for activities as varied as performing surgery and living responsibly. Every society needs role models and other exemplars of skill and virtue.
Value for Sunday of Week 48 in the season of Harvest and Celebration
Focusing
Sometimes, our best strategy is to focus on the finest details, or on one task alone.
- The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. [attributed to the Greek poet Archilochus]
- Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. [attributed to Alexander Graham Bell]
- Focus on what lights a fire inside of you and use that passion to fill a white space. Don’t be afraid of the challenges, the missteps, and the setbacks along the way. What matters is that you keep going. [Kendra Scott]
- You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. [Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Chapter XLIII, “The Battle of the Sand Court” (1889).]
“Attention is the important ability to flexibly control limited computational resources.” Some people cast their attention to many things, the Renaissance Man for example; or from a broad perspective. Others focus narrowly on one thing. Neither approach necessarily is right or wrong; often, they are yin and yang. Each person is challenged to find the mix that best suits her.
- “Focused attention improves working memory . . .”
- “Sustained attention is a critical cognitive ability that improves over the course of development and predicts important real-world outcomes, such as academic achievement.”
- “The intensity that people choose for their endurance activities has a major influence on their affective experience. Furthermore, the direction of attention (e.g., internal or external) during endurance activities may significantly influence performance and personal perceptions.”
Today’s topic is focus, whose meaning here is concentration on a narrow band of concerns, often one concern. The research scientist who spends a lifetime on one project, the football coach who dedicates his life to the sport and the parent who spends many years devoted to a child’s upbringing are examples of focus.
Real
True Narratives
Football coach Vince Lombardi drove the Green Bay Packers to champion status with a single-minded focus on football fundamentals, and on winning.
- David Mariniss, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi (Simon & Schuster, 1999).
- Vince Lombardi, Jr., What It Takes To Be Number #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership (McGraw Hill, 2000).
- Vince Lombardi, Jr., The Lombardi Rules: 26 Lessons from Vince Lombardi--the World's Greatest Coach (McGraw Hill, 2004).
Other narratives:
- Tanshu Terayama, Zen Brushwork: Focusing the Mind with Calligraphy and Painting (Kodansha International, 2004).
Technical and Analytical Readings
- John Cassian, How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction (Princeton University Press, 2024).
- Mike Schmoker, FOCUS: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2014).
- Mindy Stombler & Amanda M. Jungels, eds., Focus on Social Problems: A Contemporary Reader (Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 2020).
- Luciana de Oliveira & Mary Schleppegrell, Focus on Grammar and Meaning (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Markus Zusak, The Book Thief (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006): Amid the grand and terrible events of World War II and the Nazi holocaust, and the tragic personal events in a 10-year-old girl’s life, this story is organized around a series of petty book thefts that are barely that. The juxtaposition illustrates how our internal lives can make small events large and large events small.
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Minimalist composer Morton Feldman titled several of his works as though they were being dedicated to particular people. Each has its own character but their common element is the careful, focused attention required to listen to and absorb them.
- For Franz Kline (1962) (approx. 12’)
- For Philip Guston (1963) (approx. 288’) (list of recorded performances)
- For Frank O’Hara (1973) (approx. 18’)
- For John Cage (1982) (approx. 72’) (list of recorded performances)
- For Samuel Beckett (for 23 players) (1987) (approx. 43-55’)
- For Christian Wolff (1986) (approx. 203’)
- For Bunita Marcus (1985) (approx. 71’) (list of recorded performances)
- For Stefan Wolpe (1986) (approx. 35’)
Salvatore Sciarrino is a contemporary avant garde composer whose music demands careful, focused attention. “His music is intimate, focused and refined, sustained by microvariations in sonic structures comprising rich timbres and breaths. He developed a sonic universe which is transparent, rarefied and near silence (or ‘sound zero,’ which, for the composer, is also music); it is built upon a multitude of microscopic sounds and almost imperceptible noises, and is reduced to only what is absolutely essential.” “(It) often utilizes unconventional methods of tone production such as harmonics, percussive sounds, and silence.” “There is something really particular that characterizes this music: it leads to a different way of listening, a global emotional realization, of reality as well as of one’s self.” Albums of his music include:
- “Musiche per il ‘Paradiso’ di Dante” (1993) (66’)
- “Live at Ars Musica 2000” (72’)
- Roberto Fabbriciani, “Sciarrino: Fabbrica degli incantesimi” (2012) (68’)
- Ensemble Opificio Sonora, “Sciarrino: Chamber Music” (2022) (78’)
“Gro Marie Svidal is a well-established and renowned performer and interpreter of the traditional Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music.” Her scrupulous focus on this musical tradition shines through in her albums.
Other works:
- Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988): Quattro Pezzi per Orchestra (1959) (approx. 17-19’); Anahit (1965) (approx. 15’); Uaxuctum (1966) (approx. 23’)
- Raga Kaunsi Kanhra (Kaunsi Kanada; Kaunsi Kannada; Kausi Kanhra; Kausi Kanada; Kausi Kannada; Kaushi Kanhra; Kaushi Kanada; Kaushi Kannada) is a Hindustani classical raag for after midnight. It presents one slowly-developed theme. “Kaunsi Kanada highlights the exceptional sophistication of the Hindustani Raga system of 'colouring our minds'.” Performances are by Nikhil Banerjee, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, and Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan.
- Jordan Dykstra, “Orbits” (approx. 15’)
Albums:
- Steven Halpern, “ADHD: Mindful Music for Enhanced Focus” (2019) (69’)
- Steven Halpern, “Clutter Clearing at the Speed of Sound” (2016) (71’)
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Grateful Dead, “Ripple” (lyrics)
- Rob Thomas, “Little Wonders” (lyrics)
