Attention.

There's only one thing that people respect.
It threads through the entire history of humankind and binds all that we hold in exaltation.
We don't talk about it.  I haven't seen it touted by the celebrities nor the commentariat.
Maybe the motivational speakers go on at length about it.
But who listens to them?
We throw hosannas at it all:
Inspiration
Genius
Love
Cooperation
Individualism
Courage
Imagination
Truth
Grit
Spine
Compassion
Whimsy
Gravitas.
But it's all shit.
In the entire history of our species there's only one thing in the narrative that again and again indicates what we genuinely revere -
Concentration.
That's it.
From the artists to the thinkers to the fighters to the architects to the leaders to the famed to the obscure to the immediate to the untouchable to the wise to the game-changers to the revolutionaries to the prudent.
Focus.
And now I wanted to write about the cerebral equivalent of the thousand yard stare getting us all to where we are today.
But I've lost interest.

I'm talking to you and I hope you're concentrating...