After “Breakfast with Henry Ford” by James Opie (PARABOLA Winter ’08)
Why is being interrupted so jarring? Looking out my office window I see people walking. They are moving. Walking forward. Those who are standing are swaying just a little. Why is it that the stopping of movement has such an effect on us humans where bumping into someone’s shoulder, even with a polite “sorry,” is an irritation?
Anyone who has practiced some form of meditation has probably been told to “still the mind” or “cease the flow of thoughts.” Even meditation practices that shy away from commands to “quiet the mind” still at least suggest an interruption in mental chatter. The call to mental stillness is ubiquitous in spiritual communities and yet, for some of us (most of us?) being told, subtly coaxed, or gently lead into stillness is an act that is as simple as balancing on the head of a pin.
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