It may be the ADD-riddled side of me that is saying this, but that's what it felt like.
How did I know that it lasted for six minutes? The answer: I began to time my fellow ward member, a notoriously long-winded speaker, just before he opened his mouth, and I looked at my watch again when he concluded. (This is the same person who, just minutes prior to his prayer, had given the last testimony of the meeting and had already pushed our meeting to five minutes past closing time.)
The longer he spoke, the less attention I found myself paying to what he was saying and the more attention I paid to how long it was taking him to say it. I started to notice the breathing of people next to me on the bench and thought for a moment that I could actually hear the hair growing on their heads and faces. Soon, the voice speaking turned into that of Charlie Brown's schoolteacher.
Do any you ever feel distracted like this in church? Do you ever feel like, depsite your best efforts and intentions, it's hard to concentrate in church the way that you would like to? Further, did we set some kind of record for the length of a prayer in an LDS meeting? I'm convinced that it at least made the top 10.
We sure don't need to look for things to keep us distracted, because they seem to abound - at least, they do in my ward. Of late, the ward program has included both crossword and Sudoku puzzles. I have seen others laboring on all-out pieces of artwork or scrapbooking on their benches. And then there are those who simply cannot keep their hands off of their significant others and spend the entire meeting displaying physical affection that would make their grandmothers blush.
Perhaps it is the Primary student in all of us, still looking for that bag of Cheerios or coloring book to get us to the end of the meeting.
3 comments:
How odd you should mention this. Just last Sunday my attention span failed me, and I found myself jotting poetry on the inside of my forearm during the RS closing prayer. It wasn't very good - something about feet and octopal arms entwining something. . . (it washed off fairly quickly)
When time is up, it's time to shut up out of respect for those in attendance. As soon as people go over, brains turn off and you have undone what good may have come from the message. I am the queen of church ADD, and yes, speakers going over is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves.
Okay, I will admit it. I opened my eyes more than once to see if he was still standing. I mean, he had to have fainted or something to have a pause that long...right??
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