Boredom

Dr. Drake, from NCTC, once told me, coming off her year long sabbatical, that it is impossible for one to truly be bored. There is just too much to do. Reading . . . repairs around the house . . . yard work . . . travel . . . even relaxation need not be boring. I was shocked when I heard this for I thought I had been repeatedly bored during my life. But now that I reflect on this in my life now, I agree with Dr. Drake.

Boredom is a myth. When my students whine that they don’t want to do anything today, I tell them fine. We will sit and stare at the walls for 85 full minutes. No one may get up. No one may talk. No one may slouch. No one may sleep. No one may fidget. We will sit and stare. That is, we will do nothing.

I have never had a class take me up on this.

The mind, it seems to me, doesn’t want to be bored. It doesn’t want the mundane and the routine. I think this is one reason free writing works for writers. The mind cannot stand writing the same phrase or word continuously, so it kicks the imagination into high gear and away the writer goes.

This too is why I keep this blog: it is a place for my stories, rants, lessons, ideas. Even as I write this very entry, my mind is already moving ahead of my fingers. It’s in the next paragraph wondering how I’m going to transition, thinking of where to go next. I am barely aware of it sneaking ahead of me, but it surely is. I wonder how much of my life I spend composing inside my head?

It usually starts in the shower, which where I do some of my best thinking. The same is true for the ride to work. School hits and it’s non-stop thinking and composing.

There is brief respite after school, but that doesn’t last long because it’s usually time for errands to the grocery store or Wal-mart, my mind off composing the whole way. Sometimes I’m thinking of something so hard, I drive right past Wal-mart. Only once did I ever start thinking about how I was thinking so hard that I missed Wal-mart on the second drive by. I didn’t attempt a third. I just drove straight home.

Lying in bed I usually rehash my day in my mind or plan for tomorrow. Kristie, though, often cannot sleep if she has something on her mind. Her brain will keep working it over and attacking the issue from different angles long into the night while she lies there tired but sleepless. With this type of mental power inside us all, how it is one may ever be bored?

Just last night as I left school early to drive to GF to meet Kristie for the “Taste of the Holidays” at the Allerus center, my mind was juggling so many things (what podcast would I listen to on the way to GF or should I organize a Christmas playlist of my favorite Holiday favorites? which route should I take? Should I drive past the farmstead with the original, tiny settlement house on it? Should I grab a cup of coffee for the road? Would I get there in time? Do I have the latest “Hardcore History” podcast from Dan Carlin downloaded? The last one was on the rise of the Nazis, and I loved it. Should I check if Stanford has any new lectures on education downloaded? The last one I listened to led me into buying the book “Doing School.”) I barely made it out of school on time. In fact, as I was halfway to GF, when I realized I must have left my cell phone on my desk. Of course, I had to commence searching for it immediately, without stopping. I scoured my back pack and its myriad compartments. Nothing. I patted down my coat. Nothing. I tried to check under the seat and between the cushions. Nothing but a few hairy French fries.

It was at this point that I began to get frustrated with my lack of organizational skills. For the hundredth time, my mind was ten steps ahead of my body.

But then I checked in the last spot (and most obvious) my pocket. There it was. Yet, my mind was too preoccupied to note it. I didn’t even notice that I drove right by the farmstead with the original pioneer house on it. I had wanted to stop and get a picture for this blog. I was bummed out, for about five seconds. Then I began thinking about a top ten list of my favorite Christmas songs, which led me into thinking about my top ten favorite Christmas gifts as a child.

It is now 3:40. Time for me to head home. Look at all that. I wasn’t bored for one split second. But now I must pick up a mattress for KoKo and hit the grocery store. Hopefully, I’ll only have to turn around once . . .