Paradise... nightly

In discourse analysis, focus is another word for topic.  The way a sentence is worded shows which part of the sentence is being emphasized for importance.  In English class one learns that the subject of a sentence is the topic of the sentence.  That is sometimes true for simple, declarative sentences. 

But thoughts are usually complex, not simple, and the subject is not always the emphasized idea.  Primary importance is given to what is emphasized first in a sentence.  In the case of complex sentences, the subordinate clause can come first.  What is first is the focus.  Interruptive relative clauses are primary in importance because they separate the main clause's subject from its verb.  And, contrary to what is taught in some English classes, compound sentences still have a primary idea rather than two equal ideas.  The topic of the first independent clause is primary because the two clauses would have been switched if the second clause's topic was more important. 

It sounds like common sense.  Except that the ideas lower in a paragraph or mentioned after several other thoughts in an utterance are usually ignored since they come closer to the end of one's thinking process for lengthy ideas.  But they, too have a focus which might or might not be the same as the focus in sentences or utterances closer to the top.

Topics in one's journey through the mind act in much the same way.  Intensity and significance replace primacy of order and emphasis.  A person thinks and mulls the important events in life.  The events that recur in the mind are selected for memory.  What is remembered often forms synapses with many ideas, and these many synapses continue to form with even more thoughts.  The more synapses a single thought combines with, the more significance it has.  The more intensity a thought has when formed, the the more synapses are formed as well, and thus, the more significance it has.  So, when remembering, what thought or picture comes up often?  What routes in the mind's thinking end up with the same idea, place, time, or visual?

For me, I end up every night thinking about the same time, place, and visual before drifting off.  It is my main focus in life.  Nearly every thought is routed to the synapses containing these particularly important times, places, and visuals, so I know they are the focus. And when I write or speak about this collection of memories, the focus surfaces every time first in importance.

I am fortunate.  I am in paradise every night.