Multitasking

Well, I lost my brand new handheld device. I was quite upset about it. It was a new phone that I had gotten just a month or two ago, and we (“we” means Roland Keys, our Director of Facilities) had jumped some major hurdles in order to get it working properly. Finally, it was receiving emails perfectly, and also wirelessly synching with my calendar and contacts.

I was in my office at the time that it disappeared. It was there one moment, and gone the next. I remember that I was sitting at my desk talking on the phone, while also working on the computer and looking through several piles of papers. O yea, I was also signing some letters at the time. And then suddenly I realized it was gone. While still talking to a church member I frantically searched all my pockets and the top of my desk. As a last resort I started to pick up my desk phone and call the number, hoping that I would hear it somewhere in my office. It was at that moment, of course, that I found my phone. It was pressed between my ear and shoulder, and I was talking on it.

This, unfortunately, is not the first time this has happened. And I am still not sure of the meaning of this event. I was raised by a father who thought that one should be “useful” and keep busy. He had little patience for sloth, or even for a slow pace. It would, of course, be wrong of me to blame my personality disorder on him. Type A is Type A regardless of etiology, and I accept responsibility for my shortcomings. It does occur to me, however, that we live in a world that feeds the relentless pursuit of activity, and that maybe some of us need to stop multitasking and learn to sit still and be quiet.

Maybe that is as good a reason for Lent as any. The Bible says to “be still and know that I am God.” I have been taking Yoga lately and my Yoga teacher assures me that this is good for Type A’s. She has also implied that it will make me a nicer person, though Bobby Ann says she has not seen any evidence of that yet. One thing for sure: I spend 60 minutes with my phone turned off, listening to myself breathe. That is about as far from multitasking as one can get. And, done properly, it gets one pretty close to God.

Don Underwood