December 2016 – lydia's lens

This past summer I was in Florida on a vacation with my family. Whilst being there we spent loads of time in the pool. In the pool, sometimes we would hit around a ball to one another. Occasionally, someone would miss the ball. After a couple of times, I started joking about them not “being there”. Each time someone would miss the ball I’d say, “Round number 234 (some random number each time) of ‘Where Were You?’.”

Tonight my family has been making plans for Christmas, my birthday, Grandkids, etc. When we would finish a topic, we would realize that my Dad had not really been listening…I don’t know what he was doing, but he obviously “wasn’t there”. So, I began my little game again.

As I sit here, later on, I am pondering these moments. This game was made as a way to joke about a moment of small failure, or more so, a moment of obliviousness. Is obliviousness good or bad? I tend to think of things as black and white, obliviousness being one of those things.

My Sister and Dad are people that I would consider oblivious, my Mother and I are not oblivious people. When you aren’t oblivious you REALLY notice obliviousness; it’s like a huge, neon sign pointing at someone. This is the case for me, at least. Truthfully, it gets tiring to be the “noticer”. Sometimes you just want to shout out, “Look around you for a moment!”

Here’s the thing, though: I think that oblivious people notice things in their own unique way. I think that maybe when the “zone out” that they might not just turn into a zombie, maybe they are actually taking time to analyze a situation and trying to find a new detail that they might not have noticed in the moment. My Sister is oblivious, and yet she has stellar memory and tends to think of different situations after they have happened.

Now, sometimes people might actually zone out, and that’s fine. But when they tune out with intention, I think that could be a true game-changer. Maybe the world needs people who take the time to rethink over past situations. I find that oblivious people actually care deeply for people and things…imagine that?! 🙂 They take the time to carefully think of responses to good and bad things. They STOP to TNINK so they can ACT.

This is a gift. Obliviousness can be a gift! 🙂 Maybe all of you already thought this, but this was a very new thought to me tonight.

The game “Where Were You?” was made as a joke against obliviousness. this game will still continue I’m sure (all in good fun) but in “real life” maybe I want people to start asking me, “Where Were You?” This would mean that I actually took the time to care instead of making snap judgments.