I'm sooooo bored...NOT!
“Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are billed to death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death”...Winston Churchill
I just can't take this anymore. For the fifth time in 2 weeks on Facebook, I see numerous kids saying "I'm bored". I can't stop pondering this comment. Are they saying it because they are, in fact, bored? Do they even know what it means? I mean, boredom keeps company with words such as dissatisfaction, restlessness, frustration, lethargy, tedium, dullness, monotony, flatness, dreariness. Horrible, depressing words if you ask me. I am so perplexed as to how these highly intelligent kids could be bored, so I have spent all week taking notes on my own life to see if perhaps there would be just one moment in which I was bored.
Even when I was a kid, a long time ago, I can't remember being bored. Not ever. We played basketball, baseball, frisbee, we jumped off our porch, we jumped off our roof (there were bushes to break our fall, mom), we played flashlight tag, rode our bikes... from one end of town to the other. When those things became tedious, then we took our dad's quarters out of his glass block to go down and play Pac-Man. (sorry Dad, but you had to notice that 40 quarters were missing every week). If those activities got monotonous, then we played at the park, or we sat on skateboards while my brother pulled us from his bike with a rope down the hill until we wiped out. And after that, we certainly were not bored, as we wiped the blood of our knees and tried to patch our new purple sweats from Fetlas before our mom saw them. If it were dreary out, then we would play Sorry, or Clue, or Battleship. (You know, the old-fashioned, non digital kind.) If we became restless, then we slid down the stairs in the hamper, or roller skated in our basement. Our music did not travel with us all day, we listened to our 8 tracks and cassettes in our basement. When we were out in public, we were forced to practice our social skills, as we didn't have headphones in our ears.
I remember about 8 years ago when my kids were at their Grandma's , and they subtly indicated that they were "bored". To which she replied, "I am sorry that you are such boring people that you can't find anything interesting to do". When they arrived home, I just remember them telling me "Grandma called us boring!" After hearing the entire quote, I said "She is unequivocally right!" That quote has stuck with me my entire life, you can ask the friends of my kids. And I say friends, because my kids have not had the nerve to say "I'm bored", because they know that I exchange chores for boredom. Even scarier is when you use "bore" as a noun. It essentially means a tiresome person or thing, a dull person or thing, a bother, or nuisance. So, I'm hopeful that the kids that say "I'm bored" are only saying it out of sheer habit, because surely they don't want to be labeled as a dull person, bother, or nuisance, do they? The irony in all of this is that our generation had only our imaginations paired with our family and friends to keep us company. Kids now have cell phones, Ipod's, MP3 Players, Nintendos, Playstations, Wiis, Computers, TV's....and they are still BORED....so I'm left to conclude that somehow these savvy gadgets are somehow slowly sucking our precious children's imaginations right out of their brains, without their knowledge, causing them to be bored. It seems inconceivable really that all of these things can actually create boredom, but I think I am on to something! Quite frankly, I can't find any other explanation as to how someone could possibly ever be bored. My hope for the future is that the future leaders of our city, state, and country (aka...kids) will never be bored again, or at least to never admit they are bored! The world is so big, and life is too short, please find something to do that interests you!!
I am definitely not alone in my aversion to this statement. as these quotes and lyrics attest to.
“There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.”....Viggo Mortensen
When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves...Eric Hoffer
Procol Harum's song Boredom sums it up well.
Some say they will and some say they won't
Some say they do and some say they don't
Some say they shall and some say they shan't
Some say they can and some say they can't
Some say there's nothing and some say there's lots
Some say they've started while some say they've stopped
Some say they're going and some say they've been Y
es, some say they're looking and some say they've seen
Keep doing, keep seeing, keep starting, keep going, and keep looking. That way, you won't have time to be bored.
And, if you find that you really have NOTHING to do, here are my suggestions for you.
you can always write (a real letter...on real paper) to a loved one, organize your closet, write a story, paint a painting, read a book, read the newspaper, play a game with your family, play solitaire if you are alone, make cookies, or spray paint something. (My favorite thing to do.)
If you are still lacking for ideas, come to my house. I need to:
paint my downstairs bathroom
order a sink for my bathroom,
vacuum under my bed,
do breakfast dishes,
make dinner,
do 5 loads of laundry,
fix the light switch that shocks people downstairs,
dust and mop my basement,
organize my laundry room,
organize my photos/videos on my computer
call the eye doctor,
call the regular doctor,
get immunizations for my kids,
go put the chickens back in their coop,
bathe my dogs,
go watch my son's basketball game.....
and at my shoppe, I need to:
paint 8 chairs
plan a menu then print the menu
order equipment
hire employees
print an employee manual
order food
make soup
make sandwiches...
Oh, and for the record, I did not have one single second of this past week where I was bored. Not one second. And I don't foresee being bored in the future.
And remember......
A finished person is a boring person...Anna Quindlen
Here is my quote of the month for my kids...they can't help but see it front and center everyday in my kitchen. 