On paying attention to the wrong thing

“Do not live in the world, in distraction and false dreams…” – The Buddha

I take pride in noticing little details. Like, I’ll be crossing a railroad track and notice it stamped on the side with Carnegie Steel 1943. I will imagine the journey that piece of steel took from mine to smelting operation to the gandy dancer hammering in the spikes to hold it in place.  I can tell you on what day the plastic dinosaur  in our neighbor’s yard started pointing a different direction (Monday), and make up a story about the circumstances under which it first ended up in the yard and then how it came to change position. I can tell you what is different today with the house that is under construction that we pass every day while walking the dogs and think about what it must be like to have a job where you work with your own hands and at the end of the day you can actually see what you have accomplished. What I can’t tell you, at times, is what the heck Tristan or Maebe just ate while I was pondering the steel or the dinousaur or the house. Hopefully it was just grass.