Comfortably Numb

I’m surprised, baffled and ashamed all in one strange mix of emotions. I really can’t grasp what has happened this week, and I can’t understand how most of it happened completely unnoticed by me!

It has been a stressful week for me. That is not meant as apology, but as a fact. The workload on my desk is quite remarkable, and I can only assign tiny portions of it to my team. On top of that, I had job-interviews this week (which gave me headaches because I can’t decide between my two “finalists”). And on top of THAT, I had to take a day off on Wednesday for personal reasons. The day off was nice of course, but inescapable the revenge waited for me on Thursday and Friday. Rumors say that my desk actually has a wooden surface – I can’t confirm because I haven’t seen it for a while…

The first thing which happened completely unnoticed by me was Live8. A gathering of the Who is Who in contemporary music, spanning 9 major cities all over the world, happening in a 24 hour time span – and I was completely unaware of it! I still recall the LiveAid concerts of 1985. I stacked MC’s weeks before to tape the whole thing since it was broadcast live on radio. And 20 years later, I have become so tired, established, careless that I didn’t even heard the news before. What makes it especially bitter for me is that I missed the opportunity to see some heroes of my youth reunite. Thanks to Tom for pointing me towards the videos.

The second thing I did not notice was the G8 in Scotland. Usually I pay attention to media coverage, but I hardly saw any news the last couple of days.

The third thing I did not notice were the London Bombings. Actually I heard co-workers talk about terrorist action, but in my preoccupied state of mind I thought they were talking about 9-11. I didn’t realize they were talking about 7-7. I only realized what happened when I watched the late news that night – and it took me another few hours to make me contact the people I know in London and ask about there whereabouts.
You know what my first conclusion was after I heard the news? I thought “It would have been Paris if they would have got the Olympics”. I was so slow-witted that – even though it was clear that it was a terrorist attack – I didn’t made the most obvious conclusion but thought the terrorists chose the city which got the Olympics.
And that is the most embarrassing confession I have to make: of all events which happened this week, the only one I really realized was the Olympics award ceremony. The most irrelevant of all.

Nevertheless, this week was a wakeup-call for me. I will not let that happen again. I will start to use my eyes again, switch them to wide-angle, bring them back into focus again. I will open then shutters on my ears again, tune them into the real life again, and be more attentive.