Becoming Bored Again

The lost art of doing nothing

It’s obvious, isn’t it? We are addicted to activity and stimulation. Multi-tasking is the air we breathe (and mono-tasking sounds like a discipline from an alien planet). We can’t watch a movie without picking up our phone 28.47 times. We risk our lives (and the lives of countless others) on the road trying to swipe and scroll for entertainment and updates. Heck, we can’t even seem to go to the bathroom without bringing in a screen (there’s many problems here…).

It’s almost like we’re afraid of the silence.
We’re terrified of sitting still and being with ourselves.
We’re anxious about doing nothing.

My humble opinion?
We have lost the art of being bored.
And this has a dizzying amount of consequences.

We need to bring back BOREDOM.

When I was growing up, boredom was the cause of some of my greatest adventures and creativity. I didn’t have a phone to always check, so I went outside and acted like I was Michael Jordan (the rim was lowered down to 7 feet, don’t judge me), rode my bike across town to a friend’s house, made up an imagined game with swords and villains with the kids on my court.

This is the difference: Having nothing to do led me to do something engaging. Now, having nothing to do leads us to fill the time (often with screens and scrolling) until there is something more important, stimulating or exciting to do.

Even now in my life, boredom is something I am learning to embrace, not fight against. I am desiring to invite it into my life (it’s more difficult than it sounds). It’s in those moments that I walk over to our piano and play improv, grab my notebook and write a poem, pick up a book and dive into a new world, sit in my backyard and stare with wonder at the wildness of hummingbirds.

Boredom is actually an invitation from God into the beauty and mystery of life.

A world where people embraced boredom is a better one in my opinion. It gives us margin and moments in our lives to literally stop and smell the roses, to notice and love the humans made in God’s image sitting in the same room as us, to exercise creativity in a new and meaningful way.

How do you embrace or fight against boredom?
What if you were to put down the phone and go outside?
What if you became okay with the silence and the margin?

I’m not running for President.
But I think we should Make the World Bored Again.