© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

To Focus Or Not To Focus ...

I jump from a WWII novel, to the best American short stories, to a biography of a poet, to a novel telling the story of the battle of Jakku.

I immerse myself in The Last of Us; I am a man stricken with grief who bonds with a girl who holds the key to saving the world. Or, I am signed by the Royals farm team and, now at six-five with a huge red Afro, begin my journey to the majors.

I watch Netflix’s Stranger Things – enamored by the freedom of a childhood where children build entire worlds with bikes, dice, and their imagination. I remain fascinated at Better Call Saul’s use of silence and imagery to say in words what cannot be said in words.

Between reading, watching, and playing – I juggle myriad stories. In addition to my blog, which is part of my story, I write and teach stories for a living. Oh, and I listen to podcasts and audio books.

Just ten years ago, and certainly twenty, it was not this way. So I ask myself: Have I lost my ability to focus? Is this indicative of a larger societal trend?

Indeed, we now have more stories, more storytellers, and more mediums in which to tell stories than at any point in history. And access to those stories increases daily.

And, yes, we struggle to decide how to focus amidst this onslaught.

However, rather than looking for a flaw in ourselves or harken back to a simpler time, why not embrace the plethora of stories being told as an embarrassment of riches while recognizing the challenge that sorting out such riches will require?

I’m Michael Perry, and that’s my perspective.

Related Stories