In August of 2000, I drove my sweet heart to the airport using my parents 1982 Mercedes 220D. The airport was about 150 miles away, and we made it. But while returning, the front pully on the engine of the Mercedes came unbolted and really made of mess of things. I was fortunate to make it safely to a rest stop, but slightly shy on good fortune in that I was 150 miles from home. What good luck! The car waited to finish it's important job for the day before misbehaving. The radiator got all beat up.

The interesting part of the story though is what happened next. My brother in law agreed to drive his truck and trailer 150 miles to pick me up. It was generous of him to offer and super generous of him to try and find me, but fortune again slighted me. I imagine my brother in law was within 5 miles of me or so when he gave up looking.

Still, however, the part that is interesting has yet to be told. I have one of those cell phones and it still had enough battery to call my father who agreed to drive out and we would see what we could do together. My dad and I, every time we have decided to try something that's a bit dangerous, are stubborn about giving up. I don't know why we try the risky things. Sometimes its a simple task like pouring used motor oil from an old cake tin into the narrow mouth of a 2 liter bottle so that it could be taken to the recyclers; couldn't find the funnel. There was also a couple of times that were more dangerous, like with the chain saw.

To get the car back home, my dad and I though it wouldn't be so bad if we tried to tow it with his Cadillac. He had some heavy rope in the trunk, but it wasn't very long. I think it's intended use was to assist pulling a car from a ditch... but our plans were different. My job was to pilot the Mercedes, trying the whole time to match speeds with the Cadillac. If my dad (the pilot of the Cadillac) had to brake hard, I had to be ready. If the rope got too much slack, it was likely that when the slack was taken up, either the rope would snap or something else would break. We've done this before, except never on the Interstate, and never for more that a couple miles. All I had to do is maintain a little tension in the rope.

The first couple miles were not so bad, a couple jerks but they weren't that bad. While coasting down the hills, I needed to ride the break because my car coasted quite a bit faster than the Cadillac. My car had very little wind resistance compared to the Cadillac that was 10 feet in front of me. We had a hand signal system for communicating. All was well and maybe better than we anticipated. Our original plan was to get onto Highway 6 and take it home, but confidence was high. We pulled over after a couple miles to talk about it.

What would the police officers think of the two of us cruising through their town on highway 6? I was sure they would pull us over and at least talk to us about what we were up to.... Because confidence was high, and there were no stops if we stayed with the Interstate, we decided that we could manage 65mph for the next couple hours.

For two hours and more I concentrated on a thick yellow nylon rope. If you are looking for the interesting part to this story, this is it. I watched a yellow rope and applied the brake when it started to slack. I didn't think about anything else for two hours. I didn't think about all of the accidents that we should have been involved in. I didn't think about the police officers that should have been pulling us over. All I thought about was that rope. I had to. These thoughts are not higher order thinking, just a yellow rope and a foot on a brake pedal. I would slightly adjust the steering wheel from time to time, but all the rest of the time I was looking at that rope and thinking about what my brake foot should be doing. My mind was not floating amoung the fluffy white clouds that were likely in the sky, nor was I able to enjoy the beautiful gently rolling hills of western Iowa. I was watching that rope.

Most television shows are a half hour long. During an episode of the Simpsons, Homer is able to start a singing group, tour the world, and have group fall apart. There is even ample time for commercials. Wow, a lot can happen in a half hour! When I watch the Simpsons, the time flies! My mind wanders. I think about what's going on in the show, but I know most of the shows already and so somewhere in my head I already know what's going to happen. Sometimes I think about what Could happen, or I try to imagine a way that the Simpsons is believable, or .... my mind wanders, and then the time is up and I have to wait another day to see something good on TV.

I won't talk too much more about that yellow rope, but I hope you understand what it's like to have your mind purely absorbed in a boring task that demands attention. There was not even a spare second for me to think about anything else while being towed by my dad. All was well except what was happening to my mind. Neural circuits were processing the visuals of the yellow rope and triggering the appropriate response in my foot. I think these neural circuits became permanantly fused. Or maybe they became burned out, all their stores of energy required to repolarize their membranes had been used. Or maybe the rest of my mind was completely turned off and reset like a computer. Whatever happened in there, when finally we got home, I was super fryed. I was done for the day. No more talking, walking, watching TV, eating, or anything. I was done.

Now I know what it's like to focus on one simple thing for a really long time. I'm sure there are those that have done more impressive tricks with concentration, but this one was the biggest I've every done and the biggest I ever hope to do. I hope never again to do what I did, and I hope for all others in this world that they never are forced to do what I did. I think about the factory workers. How different is their daily experience from my two hour experience? I think about a meditating monk. Are they doing this? I try meditating, and mostly it's a time for my mind to wander in all sorts of directions and usually nothing mind blowing comes from it. After staring at that rope for two hours and my mind focused on this simple task, my mind was blown. It was cooked. I was done. I believe there are some things that we should not do with our minds because it is unheathy. I need to nuture my mind by always providing fresh experiences.