One of the things that parents fear about summer vacation is the sigh/cry of the child used to going off to school each day but now left at home,"I'm bored." I used to say the same thing myself during the latter weeks of summer vacation. Modern schools and classrooms are chock full of interesting sights, sounds, equipment and opportunities. So the abrupt loss of the duty and the chance to attend them, under the guidance of one of those enthusiastic, energetic and imaginative, highly educated and experienced teachers, can be almost painful. My mother used to snap back at me when I complained about boredom,"Well, find something to do."
One of the reasons I like books, DVD's, computers and writing blog posts is that there are tons of things to do, think, say, experience and learn with them. I have many friends who are moving toward retirement and some of them are afraid of big stretches of boring time waiting for them. Some people have jobs where they must be at their post but have too little to do there. That can be painfully boring.
I didn't have much respect for boredom as a force until recently. Reading that ol' Huston Smith's discussion of Hinduism in "The World's Religions", I found his explaining boredom as a major force. I always loved the opening of Ecclesiastes where the author says that in trying to find how to live, he has found that all is vanity, the same thing over and over. "All the rivers run into the sea and yet the sea is not full." "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be" and "There is nothing new under the sun."
I think the poor guy really means "I can't find anything INTERESTING or MEANINGFUL or WORTHWHILE!"
Huston Smith pictures Indian thought waiting patiently while a person tries all the pleasures amd all the successes and all the obligations and all the responsibilities. When all of those areas have been fully and completely explored and re-explored, maybe even over dozens of lifetimes, there will come a time when that human asks, "Is that all there is?" I am not a Hindu and I am not bored very much but I noted the driving power of exhaustion of interest in their way of looking at life. Then, I saw a special tv show about animals in the wild and in zoos and the narrator stated that animal boredom in captivity is a lethal force, one that handlers work steadily at combating.
I have learned to try to at least take a peek at what springs up on the internet since I am never the only person to be thinking about any topic. Trusty Google took me to trusty Wikipedia on Boredom. Yep, there has been lots of thought, theory, philosophy and growing interest in the topic.
In the words of the Wikipedia article, "people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances, it is accepted as suffering to be endured". That has been my lifelong reaction, suffering to be endured. Yet, "boredom is a major factor, impacting diverse areas on one's life." No wonder people worry about boredom and keep in the back of their minds a continuous lookout for its approach. An author in ancient Rome noted that people command their charioteer to drive them to their country home and no sooner get there when they command him to drive them back to the city.
It is not a trivial force at all. As a bumper sticker for gifted children says, "Boredom kills"
