ADD and Scorekeeping

I was a good student. I listened and raised my hand. I got good grades and handed in my assignments on time.

I was always engaged.

But I was also the person in class who diverted the discussion. I was the tangent-maker. I would pay such attention to the lesson that I would curiously inquire  But is that always the case? Which would inevitably lead to some other teacher-ly thoughts outside of the lesson plan.

This need to go off course is a mutant form of ADD: Attention Divergence Disorder.

It means: habitual meandering from the topic.

It means: my interests lie outside of the box.

In Robert Frost terms it means inquisitively investigating the road less traveled by.

And this is what I was thinking about at the US Open Qualifiers the other day—how I could never be the person sitting in the chair keeping the score. I would find too many other things beckoning me from the job at hand. I could not simply count point after point and enter them into the computer. I would think Why is that player continuing to make drop shots when it is clear from the 20 failed attempts that that isn’t a good play? I would look around at the crowd and wonder Is that guy the coach or just a really dedicated fan? I would wonder why a stance was so peculiar or what the player was saying in their native tongue.

All that divergent thinking would impede my record keeping. Too many of my thoughts would lie outside of my demands.

Because tangent-makers do not make good scorekeepers. A scorekeeper’s role is to count without investment---to remain in a vacuum—to have Attention Revert-gence Disorder. They must remain on the road well traveled by. Because the only points that count in tennis are the ones that fall inside and not outside of the "box".