The Case Of The Sunflowers And Inattention Blindness

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​THE CASE OF THE SUNFLOWERS AND INATTENTION BLINDNESS

      Last week a friend of mine, a dedicated emergency room nurse who spends long, stressful, exhausting days on the COVID-19 front lines in Columbus, Ohio, texted me and a few other friends a photo of a field of sunflowers.

​       Beneath the picture my friend wrote, "Check out beautiful sunflowers in Gahanna Granville Street. Take a drive and get pics. Share pics. Let's keep up our spirits."
          Upon receiving my friend's picture I thought, Wait, what? There's a sunflower field on Granville Street and I didn't know about it?"
         Granville Street is the main thoroughfare through my town of Gahanna, Ohio,

...and is also the route from downtown Gahanna to downtown Columbus and other points east, south, north and west where I don't often venture these days. These days I don't often venture much of anywhere beyond the supermarket.
           That being said, it's not as if I haven't driven down Granville Street at least a handful of times over the summer. So why did I never notice the sunflower field growing in downtown Gahanna?
            I chalked it up to a phenomenon called "inattention blindness," which occurs when something passes before one's eyes which one is not expecting to see, therefore one does not see it. A corollary of this concept was expounded upon in the movie "What the #&*! Do We Know?" ​

...in the fable of the Native American Indians on Caribbean Islands who did not see Christopher Columbus's ships on the horizon because, supposedly, people can only see what they believe is possible.

      Not that I wouldn't believe that a field of sunflowers growing between the buildings in downtown Gahanna is within the realm of possibility. It's just that in all the years I'd been driving up and down that stretch sunflowers had never gown there before and nobody told me there were any growing there now, so I wasn't expecting to see any, and so I didn't see any. I guess. 
    But, whatever, I decided to take my friend's suggestion and go see the sunflowers.
   As I live not far from Granville Street I decided to walk. And notice things along the way. And snap pictures of the things I noticed.
       Hamilton Road

      Big Walnut Creek

     Gatsby's, a popular local watering hole

    Some nice clouds over the Dairy Queen.

      Rocky Fork Creek

     When I reached Granville Street I kept my eyes peeled, though I even worried that, by looking too hard for the sunflowers, I might somehow miss them. Overattenion blindness, perhaps.
      But no, probably from my constant scanning for the sunflowers and my firm expectation of seeing them, I caught sight of their yellow heads far off in the distance:

     Do you see them?
     Look on the left side, just a little beyond that gold car.
     Here's a closer shot:

     The little sunflower field had been planted between a small strip mall,

...and the parking lot of an abandoned bank building.

      But it was nonetheless delightful.

     There was a sign naming this  sunflower oasis Little Mammoth Meadow, planted, according to the sign, by Start A Seed.

     I don't know who the individuals behind Start A Seed are, but I would like to thank them, and also to thank my friend for opening my eyes to the sunflowers growing on Granville Street. And, as my heroic friend requested, I'm sharing my pics. May we all keep our spirits up.