Easy Listening

It is funny what happens to your perspective on life when you are consumed with a singular purpose. For the past week, my purpose has been to study and prepare for the bar. One way I have been preparing is by listening to lectures on CDs, usually in my car. I find that I cannot simply sit in the house and listen to lectures, so instead, I usually go on long drives of two, three or even four hours to digest the material.

I find driving serves as a sort of distraction, a subtle trick to make my brain believe I'm doing one thing, when in fact, I'm doing another. While the basic modes of my brain are actively engaged in driving, I actually find I can concentrate really clearly on the information being conveyed via lecture. Besides, being off work means I need an excuse to get out of the house anyway.

As I wrapped up a medium length drive tonight around 11:00, I came to a clear stopping point in a lecture a few minutes before I returned home. Almost by accident, I flipped the channel over to the radio instead of just turning the radio off. Listening to the music, it sounded like it was the best and clearest signal I had ever received. I realized that I had not listened to anything other than lectures in my car for over a week. I have been so consumed with these lectures, and finding opportunities to listen to them, that the music was a great reminder that things were still going on normally in the world, whether I was there to appreciate them or not. I do not know why, but that fact was pretty calming and it was really mentally rewarding to have a second to listen for pleasure instead of for rote memorization.