I Don’t Know How Important This is Yet

Something happened this morning. Actually, a lot of things happened this morning.

Before breakfast was over, there were headlines about things happening around the country and around the world. There were predictions about what might happen next. There were people explaining why something was terribly important, other people explaining why it wasn’t, and still others insisting that I needed to pay attention right now.

And that was just the news.

There were emails waiting. A few notifications. Something somebody said yesterday that I was still thinking about. Something I needed to do later today.

It feels as though everything arrives carrying the same little sign that says “This is important. Pay attention to me.”

But of course, everything can’t be equally important.

I’ve been thinking lately about a sentence that gives me a little room:

That’s interesting. . . I don’t yet know how important it is.

There’s something wonderfully freeing about that. It doesn’t mean I don’t care. It doesn’t mean I’m ignoring what’s happening in the world. And it certainly doesn’t mean that difficult or important things aren’t happening.

It simply means I don’t have to decide right away what deserves my attention.

We live in a world that seems increasingly uncomfortable with waiting. Something happens, and almost immediately we’re surrounded by explanations. We are told what it means, why it matters, who is responsible, what will happen next, and perhaps even how we’re supposed to feel about it.

Sometimes those explanations turn out to be right. Sometimes they don’t. And sometimes something that seemed enormously important on Tuesday has almost disappeared from our thoughts by Friday.

Perhaps we don’t have to decide quite so quickly.

• We can notice something without immediately deciding what it means.
• We can be curious without becoming alarmed.
• We can pay attention without surrendering our attention.

And perhaps we can leave a little empty space between “I heard about this” and “I know what I think about this.”

That space may be more valuable than it first appears. Because when we don’t rush to fill it, something interesting can happen. We have time to wonder, to listen, to learn a little more. Time to notice whether something continues to matter tomorrow—or whether it simply floated past with all the other things competing for our attention.

And sometimes, while we’re waiting, we notice something else. Like the person sitting across from us; the friend we haven’t called lately; the sunlight coming through the window; the work that matters to us. The ordinary life that is happening all along while the world is shouting for our attention.

There are things worth caring deeply about, and there are moments when paying attention matters enormously. But perhaps we don’t have to know which ones they are quite so quickly. Sometimes we can simply notice what has arrived, give it a little room, and say:

That’s interesting. . . I don’t yet know how important it is.

A Quiet Question

What deserves your attention today?