Monday, September 02, 2013

I'm Bored

No, not me, I am rarely bored. I have such a rich inner monologue and inspired ideas, I only get "bored" when I am doing something I don't love to do, but am required to...such as work, or waiting in line at the DMV, or listening to my kids complain that they are bored for hours on end. Is there anything more boring than small people whining that they are bored? No, I assure you, there is not.

I think back to my own childhood. I always had something going on. I woke up in the morning with a project on my brain, or a story I was burning to write, or a tree had set my sites on climbing. I remember many a parental "nap" time when I produced copious drawings or wrote my own song on our little rickety organ. So, why then, are they so easily bored?

Is it just our modern world? TV, compared to the snow-filled, underprogrammed one of my day, is highly entertaining and features such amazing instant gratifiers as "On Demand" "Streaming Movies" and 4045 channels from which to choose one's entertainment. Have we just so discouraged down-time now that entertainment comes at such a frantic clip?

If there is an exception to my never-bored childhood, it's Sunday afternoons. To this day, I remember my parents choosing to nap or do yard work or keep themselves occupied with their household chores. I remember that I was tired...I had played out all my scenarios and plans and was tapped out. It was a time when I really did just want to put on the TV and turn off my brain. All that was every on at those times was ABC Sports and (for some reason it always seemed) Big Valley. Was there ever a show more boring for a child of the 70's than Big Valley? Even Ponderosa was better!

As I write this though, I realize that I am now the parent, who spent all day organizing drawers and folding laundry and they are the kids (just like I was) antsy for my attention. And off goes the computer...and off goes the TV...time for some quality time.

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