Art Heals: Boredom

This is the age of the Quarantine Olympics--dodgeball (avoiding the maskless heavy breathers in the park), sprints (running through the one way grocery aisles in search of that last roll of toilet paper), swimming (through mountains of disinfectant wipes, homework papers, sticker books, juice boxes, piles of cardboard Amazon boxes on the floor), mountain climbing (to reach that elusive packet of microwave popcorn lurking in the corner of the top shelf of the pantry), fencing (verbally, with your partner in isolation, or your concerned relative over Facetime).  It may seem counter-intuitive to talk about boredom while we are all competing  in the Creativity Classic,  the Homebound Hustle, the Perfect Partnership Playoffs, or the Flying Solo Follies.  But despite all the endless, thankless tasks imposed upon us by others ( bosses, teachers, the IRS) and by ourselves (NO MORE PINTEREST), many of us are fighting boredom as well.  I know I am.   My to-do list seems to get longer every day, and my energy level gets shorter. There are a lot of musts, and very few want-tos.   Tolstoy said the defining feature of boredom is “a desire for desires.”  It’s not that we don’t have more than enough to do, it is that we lack reasons, motivation, to do those things.  We do the musts, they fill up time,  but they don’t fill us.  If we can, after we complete the life sustaining tasks of grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, teaching, exercising, report writing, Zoom meeting, recreation organizing, we need to carve out some time for the sanity sustaining moments, through the magic of boredom. (OK, she must really be bored, thinking of it as magic.)

But boredom is what nourishes our imaginations, gives us new perspectives, sparks desires.  Sit on the couch  with “nothing to do,”  stare at the ceiling. This is not meditation ( which is also good, but different from this).  Sink into the kind of tiredness that  only comes from boring, repetitive tasks (however necessary they may be). Let boredom do its work, which is to awaken desires.  Don’t tamp those desires down despite not immediately having time or energy or means to fulfill them.  (ukulele lessons?)  Those dormant desires will nurture your dreams and fuel your energy to get through the long days ahead. Rumi said “what you seek is seeking you.”  I am waiting, working, dreaming, and getting through another day.

Here is The Dreamer Dreams Worlds, a photo-collage by photographer Michael Keating. Art Heals.