Diversion or Distraction?
October 12th, 2011 by Sonja

I may or may not have mentioned it here before but I regularly take some medication that requires the oversight of a psychiatrist.  Mostly this is because I also take some meds for my seizure disorder and it’s good to have someone in charge of all brain medication who knows what they do.  This is the theory anyway.

In any case, I was meeting with my psychiatrist the other day in order to check on all my meds and how I’m doing and I told her that I’m feeling very unfocused.  It’s something I have been struggling with for several years now, but lately it’s been almost overwhelming.  She asked me a couple of pointed questions about current events in my life and pointed out what some side effects were for some of the seizure meds I take and said, “I don’t think you’re unfocused.  I think you’re distracted by what’s going on with you.”

Um.  Really.  So what’s the difference?  It made sense when she said it, now I’m wondering.

Diversion –
1. the act of diverting from a specified course
2. ( Brit ) an official detour used by traffic when a main route is closed
3. something that distracts from business, etc; amusement
4. (military) a feint attack designed to draw an enemy away from the main attack

Distraction –
1. the act or an instance of distracting or the state of being distracted
2. something that serves as a diversion or entertainment
3. an interruption; an obstacle to concentration
4. mental turmoil or madness

Sooo … it looks to me as though being unfocused (or diverted) is makes me the subject of my own sentence.  But being distracted makes me the object.  Or is it vice versa?  I’m not sure … but I think that’s the difference between the two.  I don’t think knowing which is which really matters either.  I just needed to know what was what.

There was an ad campaign for something (I can’t remember what) not too long ago that went, “Life is messy.  Clean it up.”  For the record, all the ads for cleaning products bug me.  More than that, they piss me off.  Who can live in those pristine houses?  Life IS messy.  It’s gross and kind of disgusting down here in the trenches of our own stuff.  I’m not so sure we should clean it up.  I wonder about that sometimes.

Do you wonder about that?  Is just cleaning it up a distraction?  Or a diversion?  What if what we are supposed to do is get rid of that stuff?  What if we are supposed to make it new again?  Redeem it or reconcile it and by swiping it with some magic eraser, we’re diverting our attention to something else?  Have we got “stuff” in our lives that is like that old family room carpet.  It’s old and grungy because it’s in the most used room in the home.  People are always in and out and yes, they eat in there.  Yes, they eat dinner in front of the television on more occasions than any of us would like to admit.  And popcorn during movies and sporting events.  And snacks at other odd times.  So there are probably bits of food ground in there somewhere.  Years worth of pets and children going in and out the back door have ground in bits of mud and grass and heaven-knows-what.  This carpet has seen better days.  We keep vacuuming it and occasionally cleaning it because we know that replacing it is going to be time consuming and expensive.  Eventually we won’t be able to avoid that time and expense, but for now we get by.

We all have stuff in our lives that is deeply ground in, musty and yucky that needs to be replaced with good new and clean stuff.  We want to get at it.  We know we’ll be better off for it, healthier, more well-rounded, and we might even like ourselves better.  But … there it is.  It’s going to be time consuming and expensive.  I don’t mean money.  I mean it’s going to be hard.  It might hurt.  It might cost us some friends.  It might cost us some intangible things that we don’t even imagine when we set out on that journey.  We know that … somewhere in the remote places of our hearts.  So we divert and distract by vacuuming and dusting and saying it’s okay for now.  It’s really okay.  I’ll get to that later.

Life is messy.  I don’t want to clean it up.  I want to embrace the mess and understand it.  I want to own it and then.  I want to redeem it.  But I don’t want to just clean it up with a whitewash of pretty paint.  Because that’s just a mask and I’m done with that now.

**********************************************************************************************

This post is part of October’s Synchroblog – Down We Go.  You can read other, insightful, posts at these links:

  • Alan Knox – How Low Can You Go
  • Jeremy Myers – Seeking The Next Demotion
  • Glenn Hager – Pretty People
  • David Derbershire – Reaching The Inner City
  • Tammy Carter – Flight Plan
  • Leah Randall – Jacked Up
  • Leah Randall (her other voice) – How Low Can We Go
  • Liz Dyer – Beautiful Mess
  • Maria Kettleson Anderson – Down
  • Christine Sine – There Is No Failure In The Kingdom of God
  • Leah Sophia – Down We Go
  • Hugh Hollowell – Downward
  • Kathy Escobar – We May Look Like Losers – Redux
  • Anthony Ehrhardt – Slumming It For Jesus
  • Marta Layton – Down The Up Staircase
  • Wendy McCaig – A Material Girl

  • 20 Responses  
    • October Synchroblog – Link Compilation « synchroblog writes:
      October 12th, 201110:03 amat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • “Jacked Up” | Journal from Zarephath writes:
      October 12th, 201110:36 amat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • A Beautiful Mess « Grace Rules Weblog writes:
      October 12th, 201111:05 amat

      […] Andrews – Diversion and Distraction LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); […]

    • Jeremy Myers writes:
      October 12th, 201111:19 amat

      Hmmm. Thought-inspiring post. You are right that most of our “clean up” tasks involve little more than whitewashing something, or sweeping it under the rug so we cannot see it or smell it any longer.

      But some things do truly get cleaned up… don’t you think? Or are they just “hidden” better?

      • Sonja writes:
        October 12th, 201112:28 pmat

        Hi Jeremy … That’s exactly right! I think some things DO get truly cleaned up or redeemed. And that’s what I want to be about these days rather than just pushing the dirt around and making something look good. It’s harder, I guess. And I’m spectacularly bad at it. But that’s where my heart is at.

    • How low can you go? | The Assembling of the Church writes:
      October 12th, 201112:40 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • Reaching the Inner City | CharisMissional writes:
      October 12th, 20111:48 pmat

      […] Andrews – Diversion and Distraction October 10, 2011 at 6:00 pm 8 comments […]

    • Slumming it for Jesus writes:
      October 12th, 20114:19 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • A Material Girl – October Synchroblog | Wendy McCaig writes:
      October 12th, 20114:33 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • October Synchroblog – Links to Enjoy « Godspace writes:
      October 12th, 20116:04 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • sally writes:
      October 12th, 201110:33 pmat

      great post Sonja, whitewash is not an option! Thanks.

    • Occupations and Politics « Minnowspeaks Weblog writes:
      October 14th, 201110:38 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • How Low Can We Go? « Rantings of a Protestant Heretic ("My OTHER Blog") writes:
      October 14th, 201111:04 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • Leah Randall writes:
      October 16th, 20114:12 pmat

      I can sooo relate, Sonja! You helped me overcome my “distractedness” and make a decision. I’m going to stop “apologizing” to anyone who hasn’t walked in my shoes (that would be…uh…everyone) about my old carpet (Yeah…both literally AND figuratively). I might not be able to rip it all out and replace it with new carpet…but I can let Christ redeem the way I walk on it. Life IS messy and mine sure proves it. It’s not from lack of trying that I haven’t been able to clean it up…but…maybe I’m not supposed to. Maybe I need my mess to remind me I can’t help myself anymore than all the people in whose shoes I have never walked can help themselves.

    • October Synchroblog – Links to Enjoy « Transformational thoughts…. writes:
      October 17th, 20114:03 amat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • Liz writes:
      October 17th, 20119:46 amat

      I love the idea of owning my mess. After all, it is part of who I am and what has helped to shape me.

    • Tammy Carter writes:
      October 19th, 201110:16 pmat

      You’re right, when we start doing the hard work and getting healthier…we will lose friends. We discover that life can be messy, but it doesn’t have to be out of control…always a balance. And, sometimes we need to stay away from those that are so out of control, they bring us with them into their chaos and wounds. It’s okay to try and do life with them, forgive them, love them, but there’s always a balance.

    • How Low Can We Go? « Rough-Hewn writes:
      October 20th, 20114:08 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]

    • Carol Newman writes:
      October 31st, 201112:43 amat

      I can sooo relate, Sonja! You helped me overcome my “distractedness” and make a decision. I’m going to stop “apologizing” to anyone who hasn’t walked in my shoes (that would be…uh…everyone) about my old carpet (Yeah…both literally AND figuratively). I might not be able to rip it all out and replace it with new carpet…but I can let Christ redeem the way I walk on it. Life IS messy and mine sure proves it. It’s not from lack of trying that I haven’t been able to clean it up…but…maybe I’m not supposed to. Maybe I need my mess to remind me I can’t help myself anymore than all the people in whose shoes I have never walked can help themselves.
      +1

    • we may look like losers re-dux « Geography of Grace writes:
      November 4th, 20118:10 pmat

      […] Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction […]


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