Investing in Being Human - Dr. Colin Archer
Diversions, Distractions, Interruptions
By Dr. Colin Archer
May 17, 2013 - 1:03:34 PM

I didn’t think it at the time, and it certainly didn’t feel like it, but looking back over the years, all the diversions, distractions and so-called interruptions I’ve experienced with consistent regularity throughout life, have, on the whole, proven to be more blessing than bane.
    
Slowly but surely, I have come to regard unplanned experiences as some of life’s most important, productive ingredients.  Unforeseen diversions, distractions and interruptions seem to have a way of freeing me from my overly anxious, ambitious and unrealistic plans, and provide instead fresh opportunities to see, hear, feel and come to know myself and others in new, unexpected even exciting ways, and enter into liberating perspectives that would otherwise be impossible. I am then free to tap, once again, into the wonder fhb, a fallible human being.
   
Although we spend most of our waking hours attempting to put all our precious ducks in predictable working order - so that all things possible run according to our mundane preplanned schedule - real life with real people are usually erratic, unstable and downright messy. Someone has said that the world would be a great place to live in if there were no people in it. Let’s face it, living life is pretty tough and calls for a great deal of downright humility and the ability to learn and embrace the intriguing mystery of it all. Small wonder that Plato in philosophical mood is reputed to have said words to the effect: Let us be kind one to another for everyone is fighting a hard battle.
   
We live in a period of human history increasingly tied to routine, timetable, measured expectation and management control charts, and we are apt to regard any diversion with wearisome suspicion. Sometimes even the slightest diversion is regarded as a minor tragedy. Why the heck is my computer-linkup so slow today; this is ridiculous! To stand or sit quietly, doing what is regarded as no-thing - smelling a rose, gazing upon the magnificence of sun and moon, playing ball with a child – are often rated as the most trifling of engagements. But you and I are, in actuality, more rejuvenated, most invigorated when we’re in a day-dream state of suspended animation. Organic life, and we humans in it, are most alive and growth producing in the death-like sleep of restful oblivion. Now there’s a diversion most of us don’t get enough of. By the way – how is that incessant, unremitting texting, face-booking, twittering, emailing and smart-cell-phone stuff, working out for you these days?

Might it be that life’s diversions, distractions and interruptions are what life is really all about, where life best takes place, shape and purpose? It’s worth remembering, for instance, that a child in blissful play after school is as important as participating in the studious academics of school itself. Let’s continue practicing the art of offsetting work and worry with play and pray. Being ought always to complement doing.
   
Through diversions, distractions and interruptions we come to terms with our true selves; others are allowed to touch us at the deepest levels of our being; new possibilities are perceived and we become surprisingly and refreshingly vulnerable and creative, not only to ourselves, but to the divine movement of the One true, living All-Mighty God.

About the author:  Dr Colin Archer is an ordained Christian Minister and Psycho-theologian, who at an early age he realized a keen sensitivity for the poor, homeless and dispossessed in relation to church and society. He served as Psychotherapist at a psychiatric hospital in Nassau, Bahamas for many years. He is the founding president of The Bahamas Council on Alcoholism, later establishing a half-way house for recovering victims of alcohol abuse and a home for battered women through Methodist Community & Church Ministries. He is currently the Author of five (5) books, due to launch his sixth book, Foundation 7 Formation, due to be released in Spring of 2013.  www.investinginbeinghuman.com

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