-Isms: Views on life in rural America

Author John Di Lemme wrote, “Your results are the product of either personal focus or personal distractions. The choice is yours.”

I would argue, if you took a look at our living room, which a friend told me has the “you’re living life” look (what the heck does that mean?), it’s a result of focus and distraction.

She also told me if the house was too clean, to the point of appearing picture perfect, it wouldn’t be a true representation of our reality.

OK, I’ll buy that. I think she meant it in a good way.

I mean to clean. I mean, I start to clean some of the clutter every day, except Mondays and Tuesdays because: a.) Deadlines and b.) Deadlines are met, paper shipped to the printer and I want a few hours to kick back and relax.

I start shuffling papers to the recycling or trash bin, dust a few pieces of furniture and then, Boom! Some alert sounds on my phone or I see something outside and investigate or a sports show/movie/TV show pops up on the television and suddenly I realize I haven’t been on task for an hour.

What’s the problem?

Isn’t it obvious I’m avoiding a tedious (also: boring) task? Those other distractions aren’t the true distraction. I mean, sure, I get sucked in to David’s shenanigans on Schitt’s Creek and maybe I needed a bit of sunshine to brighten my day. But, more times than not, cleaning is not fun.

Georgia Institute of Technology instructor Ian Bogost spurs individuals to think about our personal definition of fun and play.

“Fun turns out to be fun, even if it doesn’t involve much (or any) enjoyment,” he said.

He counters that if we look at any daily task we try to avoid, and add the fun factor, we’ll find it easier to complete the job.

It makes sense. How many times did I make cleaning a game so I could coerce my kids into cleaning their rooms. Okay, a few threats about grounding them until they were 30 or taking away the cell phone and car keys may have also helped.

Simply put: do your job and you’ll get rewarded.

We all have a living room that needs cleaning. Some, though, have perfected the fun factor.

It’s the student-athlete who spends hours perfecting a jump shot. Maybe it’s the artist who labors over a perfectly-crafted watercolor. Perhaps it’s the writer who writes and rewrites a lead paragraph for an article until it rolls smooth, like Tennessee whiskey.

For some, those above-mentioned jobs sound tedious and dreaded. But for those completing the action, it’s not a distraction, but their primary focus.

And they make it fun.

Now, excuse me while I devise an elaborate game out of housecleaning. It’ll be like a mystery. You never know what you’re going to discover.