Sunday was a cool, but beautiful, day. Somewhere around mid-afternoon, I grabbed my keys and was headed to take care of something of marginal importance. I cruised out of the garage and was headed for my car when the unforgiving corner of the basketball goal forced me backward. Once I’d gathered my wits, I checked my head for blood. There was no blood, but there was a very noticeable crease in my scalp. It hurt pretty badly.
Blair mentioned the lowering of the basketball goal on Friday night. She was upset because Trevor had lowered the goal, and she didn’t want to put it back so she could practice. I promised to put the goal up as we drove out of the driveway in an attempt to stop the needless arguing. As you have probably surmised by now, I didn’t get around to raising the goal before Sunday afternoon.
The event reminded me that, in order to do best in life, we need to pay attention. If we don’t watch for changes, we can get used to the status quo; and when things change, we can get hurt. The hurt may come in the way of physical pain like I experienced with the basketball goal, but it can also come in the form of financial or emotional pain. There’s really no end to the ways failure to pay attention to what’s going on around us can hurt us.
How many times have you been hurt when not paying attention? “Lack of attention” is the main ingredient in most accidents. My father used to say there were no accidents, only people not taking care of their business. He said that a lot when I was little. Of course, he also told me wrestling was fake. As it was with most of the things he told me, I didn’t realize he was right until much later.
On a similar note, it’s time for my annual reminder to my readers to watch the trees and flowers, which are starting to bloom. Just like life, if you don’t watch them, you won’t notice the magic until it’s passed.
The point is that life is worth paying attention to. It’s not only about smelling the flowers along the way, it’s also about making sure you don’t get pricked by more thorns than necessary. One other thing — don’t forget to move your clocks forward one hour this weekend. No one likes to be late, especially those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Arkansas. His primary area of practice is criminal defense. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com