July 10, 2010
boredom
From This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities:
Svendsen also quotes Fernando Pessoa, who identifies boredom as “the feeling that there’s nothing worth doing.” The bored are those people for whom no activity seems satisfactory. The problem is often not that there is a lack of things to do in general but, rather, that there is a lack of things that are worthwhile. Boredom can arise in all kinds of situations, but it usually makes itself known when we cannot do what we want to do or when we must do something we do not wish to do or something we cannot find a satisfactory reason for. “Boredom is not a question of idleness,” suggests Svendsen, “but of meaning.” Boredom does not, however, equate to the kind of meaninglessness found in depression. The bored are not necessarily unhappy with life; they are simply unfulfilled by circumstances, activities, and the things around them.
If boredom is indeed a question of meaning, then it makes perfect sense that it is such an endemic, contemporary problem. With increased culture fragmentation comes a plurality of voices which, in turn, frustrates a unified concept of the world: meaning in crisis.*
* Originally, “world” was replaced by the typo “word.” I suspect the previous iteration of that sentence is also true.
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Hello? This thing on? Is everybody bored today or too busy?
I usually think of boredom as a failure of imagination. Some boredom is forced on one by circumstance (spirit killing labor and the energy drain it causes) and some is closer to ennui–which is often a kind of moaning about the tiresome chore of spending the weath of one’s free time. I don’t have much patience with people who are bored. I think they should decide to actively help others when that feeling arrives (given that they have apparently forgotten how to help themselves).
I just blew in, and I’m not bored. I’m just a little battered from an overly ambitious Driftless Regional hike. I got some catching up to do.
Also not bored Daryl. Danny and I decided, night before last, we’d finally paint the dining room before a dinner party we’re giving next Friday night. We forgot we had a dinner party planned for tomorrow night, for a dozen or so, after attending the matinee at QHP. Guests tomorrow night include Kent and the star of the show, Lindsey. Now, know these folks are good friends of ours and tomorrow’s performance is the last in the series. Our dinner, was meant to be the “wrap” party.
I’ll post a picture of what the dining room looks like tonight, once the battery of the camera charges up so’s I can download. Perhaps they’ll forgive us, if the place is a little out of kilter.
It was an ambitious quest, still I thought we’d be farther along. Now, Danny has the second coat on the walls. The wood work, once the same butter-yellow of the walls is going to white. I figure I can get a second coat of white on the base-boards where furniture needs to set next to the wall by 10:00 in the morning, then get everything back in place in time to shower and go to the performance. The doors, the door facings, will have to be done in the evenings, next week, before Friday. Folks attending tomorrow will have to look at the painting, half-ass done. Honestly, I think that’s the best we can do.
Double honest, it wouldn’t surprise me the painting will still be half-ass when guests arrive next Friday.
Rick! You two are working; I hope you have ample libations present to improve the process. It’s great to hear of your plans and to think of you two laughing and having a good time with a full house of friends.
Another note about boredom (and I bet you have a story like this too). When I was a kid the dumbest thing I could ever let slip was the phrase “I’m bored.”
BORED! my mother or father would say. “I’ve got Plenty for you to do….” And that would be the start of hours of edging the drive and walks with hedge clippers, or cleaning of all sorts. And here’s a confession: I’m inclined to find such assignments for bored youngsters myself these days.
Rick, you are making me dizzy with all that activity – I tend to build up to a chore like that, I work in decades of planning and then finally get someone in to do it!
Daryl, you just point out to those bored youngsters that they have no Inner Resources.
Excellent, Sheila. I am myself wag.
Daryl, Mom would not allow a statement of boredom. I learned my way early on. I thank my mother those words hold no meaning for me these days. Exasperated beyond belief? Sometimes.
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