Saw this article on my home page this morning: "In a commentary to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in April, experts say there's a possibility that the more bored you are, the more likely you are to die early."
Reading the article, I tried to conjure the feeling of boredom, tried to imagine what it's like or remember a time when I felt bored.
I couldn't.
I always, always have more to do than can get done. In moments of forced idleness (waiting in lines and so forth), I ponder. I am a world-champion wait-er. Waiting gives me time to think deeply, watch and listen to other people.
Just last night I had to wait almost 45 minutes for Evan. (He went to work without enough gas in his car to get to a station after work. I filled a gas can and went to meet him after work. The process didn't take as long as I estimated, so I was a little early. The mall doesn't close until 9:00 pm and he had to close up the store afterward.)
The time went by amazingly fast. I watched people leave the mall, pushing and carrying and dragging small children. I listened to them call to each other and laugh at one another. I paid attention to the way they walk, just in case I need to describe how tired or happy or flirtatious someone is by writing about how they walk.
Maybe I'm too simple minded to be bored.
Oh, and in case you wondered--No, it doesn't worry me at all that a young man who can't keep gas in his car is going to have a child to feed. Not. At. All. And I didn't spend a moment of that 45 minutes worrying about it.
8 comments:
Love it!
I often wonder what it's like to be 'bored,' too. We have neighbors who had to teach their kids how to use quiet time because they hadn't ever experienced it, with both parents always around to entertain them. Thank goodness you recognize that being quiet is not the same as being bored.
Boredom. I've heard of it, but like you have not experienced it myself.
And I KNOW you weren't worrying. Totally.
I'm with you on this, as my mind is rarely quiet enough for me to know boredom.
If the opposite of boredom is frenzy, though, I'm not sure this is a better prescription for long, happy life.
Ah, that Middle Way everybody talks about.
Damn. Got to get me some of that.
Didn't think you did! : )
BTW? I LONG to be bored!
HAHA! ;)
I am never bored, because I am never without a book.
:)
It was only a few days ago that I was marveling at how many irons I have in the fire. Great minds:)
When kids in a classroom said they were bored, it often meant they were scared or confused or lost. I wonder if that's true for everyone.
Of course you weren't worried.
In order to be bored, one would have to be unhappy with having "nothing to do" which seems impossible to me. I agree with you about forced waiting...trapping the body that way allows the mind to run with abandon!
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