Have you ever been driving along completely locked into a train of thought and suddenly realized that you’re not sure where you are?  Did I pass my exit?  How come I didn’t notice?  This is a phenomenon that I have labeled for myself as tunnel thinking/tunnel vision.

A good example of this is the time I received an invitation to leave the monastery and go to McMillan/McGraw Hill in New York City to give a presentation of my artwork to the School Publishing division.  My Abbot gave me permission to go and since I was planning on taking around 6 big boxes of artwork (no professional portfolio for this monk, no sir!) another brother went with me.  (click any image for larger)

We were dropped off in front of the building and because we were already five minutes late for the meeting all I saw in front of me were the revolving doors in the center of the entrance… so off I charge.  My boxes and I went into the spinning doors and got wedged into place so firmly that going forward or backward was no longer an option!  The guard in the lobby was laughing!

All of a sudden he got a look of panic on his face, started to rise, yelling “No!” and waving his arms!  That was when the other brother hit the doors behind me full-force, trying to dislodge me.  My boxes and I were catapulted out in to the lobby, artwork popping out of boxes and scattering everywhere!  By the way… there were two normal doors at the front entrance, one to the far right and one to the far left of the central revolving doors, to which I was completely oblivious… my tunnel thinking/tunnel vision!

So what does this have to do with my move to the Big Island in 2019?  I have often heard how people living in the Islands sometimes get what is referred to as “Island Fever” and feel compelled to get off the island and go somewhere!  For myself, whenever I have felt a similar desire I have seen that it was because my thinking about where I was had made me blind to where I was.  My tunnel thinking had given birth to tunnel vision!

Once I am living on the Big Island I plan on keeping an eye out for this!  If I feel the urge to flee elsewhere (which right now is incomprehensible to me) I will force myself to slow down, look around, stop work and take a day trip to some part of the Island that I have not yet seen.  In that way I hope to not miss what is right in front of me!  At least that’s the plan!

Kahuna-pule Kimo