Adding Up

Constant emails, texts, sticky notes, To-Do’s, grocery lists, kids’ agendas, and our own schedules – oh, the constant bombardment we have as parents. It seems the list of things we need to accomplish, remember, and deliver on (down to the minute) each day is endless. My zodiac sign is Virgo, and for you fellow Virgos out there, you feel my pain. We need organization and perfectionism to the 9th degree… make that the 10th degree, to be accurate.

Honestly, I believe that because of these Virgo qualities, my ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) went unnoticed. I’m not completely sure that I have ADD, but as I cruise through my life, my limited attention to things that don’t interest me makes me wonder. And reading? Just forget about it. In fact, when designing and laying out this magazine, my biggest joke was “I want to make it so even I want to read it!” And, I am happy to say, I do. I can also tell you that if my mind is focused on something, you can rest assured that it will get done according to the Virgo standards. It is just the way it works. And, from what I know about attention issues, it seems to ring true.

How much can a mind take? How many gigabytes can we store, and how do we keep it all intact? As I get older, I find that I need to start deleting things in my head to make room, as my inbox is full. These things make me wonder and have me a little concerned as I look at the world we live in today. As human beings, we have to absorb so much, so often, and so early in life. We live in a time where we end up having to constantly increase what we know and what we do, and it all keeps adding up. How will it be for our children growing up in such an inundated world? Will more attention issues arise as technology increases? I’m not a professional, but it seems to make a lot of sense to me. I know the mind can hold endless amounts of information, but was it built to take it all in with high processing speeds that are at our fingertips today? Were we designed to always be “on”? I don’t think so. I understand that we can’t take technology out of the equation for ourselves or our children, but we can limit exposure and duration, and delay accessibility for them. But, perhaps most important, we can model for them by setting boundaries for ourselves.

By//Kimberly Cabral

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