Attentiveness – A Seed of Excellence

Posted February 12th, 2007

To be or not to be…that is a famous question. I am convinced that an important way to be is to be attentive. As the monk Thomas Merton wrote, “By being attentive, we can find ourselves engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained.” We need to be attentive humans for one another and for ourselves. Let’s consider our level of attentiveness.

To illustrate the importance of being attentive, I will tell you about three people – Sarah, Kamara, and Tonio. Sarah is a dancer, and a dancer has to be attentive. Sarah is attentive because I know she focuses on the details, is mindful and observant, and pays attention to what is happening at the present moment. As a result, her degree of satisfaction has increased with her level of attentiveness.

Being attentive is the art of conscious living, observing one’s self and activities – the sensing, feeling, thinking, judging, reflecting, deciding, and acting – in order to gain new insights about ourselves. By paying attention to what is happening in our hearts as well as our heads, we may question our deeply held intentions and desires. We learn more about ourselves. We are likely to be more human.

I met Kamara Abdul in the restroom at the airport one night. He works for the company that cleans the restrooms, and his tee-shirt had “Committed to Cleaning Excellence” on its back. My business is excellence, so you know I had to ask the question. After asking his permission, I asked, “Are you really committed to cleaning excellence, like it says on your shirt?”

It is 10 PM and the airport was crowded with tired, frustrated, impatient people whose flights had been delayed or canceled. The restroom was crowded with these travelers. Who even notices a small, bald man who is continually wiping, picking up those aggravating little wet scraps of paper, and cleaning mirrors? We expect clean restrooms, and only notice when they are unclean. But what do you think his answer, in heavily accented English, was? His answer was YES. After a few more questions, I had learned that he is trained to pay attention to a number of items that need to be addressed regularly, in order to achieve cleaning excellence. Whether Kamara is happy or not, I do not know. I believe he is committed to being attentive to the details his work requires.

Tonio, as told in a folk tale, is a young man of wealth because his father is a rich farmer. Tonio spends his time visiting the taverns and other haunts of the idle rich. His father, on his deathbed, says, “Pay attention to what I tell you; keep a sharp eye on the farm and take care of business.” Did Tonio follow his father’s wishes?

No, he continued to party with his friends, even as his family and neighbors scolded him for squandering what his father had provided. When he finally noticed the farm was being ruined, he sought advice from everyone. None of it helped, until he went to an old woman who practiced magic. After hearing his tale of woe, she gave him a small chest bound carefully with bands of brass. In the top of the chest, there was a small hole. The old woman said, “In this chest is magic dust. Every morning, before the dew dries, take the chest to every corner of your farm. Do not neglect any spot. Do this every morning, and you will prosper like your father prospered. Never let a morning pass and never till the day you die break the bands and look inside. If you do, the magic will be gone.”

The magic worked. Tonio went every morning to every place on the farm where work was being done. And he prospered, just as his father had prospered. On the day of his death, he got his son to open the box. Under the lid were written these words: “Look you, the master’s eye is needed over all.” In the bottom of the chest were ordinary grains of sand. Tonio, because he became attentive, was the reason for the prosperity. The magic is paying attention to the people, the property, and the process of farming.

Sarah, Kamara, and Tonio illustrate the importance of being attentive. What about us? Let’s agree that an important quality of being human is to be attentive to all the world offers. To be attentive is not a question, it is an answer. Let’s make our answer, yes, and be attentive to those in our lives. As Mary Oliver says in a poem, “Attentiveness is the beginning of devotion.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Seeds of Excellence.