Occasionally
the answer is yes.
Yes,
I’m bored.
But
I’ve been wondering about that lately. Not because I feel bored,
or because I’ve had anything particularly exciting going on or
planned. Instead, because I’m kicking around the similarities
between what some folks might consider boring but actually is
exactly what someone else wants to be doing.
Friend
of mine has his own business. A few recent changes have created
a bit of scattershot havoc for him around the place. Kids live
in two different states and have some things going on. Parents
have been providing a bit of a scare… thankfully nothing too crazy
and they’re ok, but silly enough moments that emergency room visits
have been involved. And then, because crazy lives there, he and
his wife got a new puppy.
You
would not refer to his life as boring.
But
here’s the funny thing. It might be. I’m not saying anything is
wrong. Not critiquing it. Just saying that a lot of the things
happening can be chalked up to life. You wake up, go to work,
take care of those you love, maybe invest a bit of time in an
activity or two, go to bed, wake up, repeat. That’s life, with
the occasional need to get new tires for the car or deal with
the broken doorknob on the hall closet (because with a new puppy,
you don’t have enough to do).
But
some people would consider routine to be boring. They would think
of everyday life as boring. The exciting stuff would be a trip
to a place you’ve never visited, learning a new language, and
all sorts of other things that provide a bit of a challenge. Things
that give you some physical or mental challenges.
There’s
nothing wrong – or, honestly, boring – about settling in to a
chair to watch that show you’ve been thinking about, or grabbing
a book and finding a place in an otherwise quiet house to read
for a few hours. But there are lines we might agree on…
Watching
a show you’ve got no interest in just because it’s too early to
go to bed but too much of a commitment to find something you want
to watch… that’s probably a reaction to being bored and not too
much of a move away from it.
Often,
life brings twists into play. For instance, you have a day set
aside for mowing the lawn. It’s the only day when you have a couple
of daylight hours free. And, because of course, it rains. Lawn
work needs to get moved to a different day and you now have some
time to invest elsewhere.
(Moments
like this are why some of us have stacks of books to read in place,
ready to go. Occasionally, I’ll use them to get in an extra call
to my mother. Which, here’s a reminder, call yours. She worries.)
In
a way, this debate I’m kicking around isn’t too much different
than eating because you’re hungry or eating because there’s nothing
to do. Either way it’s going to involve chocolate chip cookies,
the real question is whether or not you immediately feel guilty
about it because you should have done something else.
In
the end, I’m guessing I’m not bored. I’ve got things to do, Moon
Knight was fantastic, and the only thing I’m having troubles
with is keeping my focus so I can attack a few bigger projects.
But I’m getting things done and the weather is only just starting
to improve for those outside jobs.
Still,
I might need to find a few things to have ready in case there
is some down time. I’d feel better knowing I accomplished something
this afternoon and didn’t watch three hours of a baking show I
hate while craving cake.