Get Bored

Are you bored? No? Maybe you should be.

Now, I am just enough of a Neil Gaiman fan (who isn’t?) that I DVR’d his appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. In part, I really wanted to hear what he had to say; in part, I was hoping he would have some preview clip from the “American Gods” series that Starz is working on. Unfortunately, Late Night comes on late (duh) and I am usually not awake at such an hour. Much better, in my mind, to tape it and watch it during a much more normal hour (around 8pm a few weeks later, as it turns out).

In the interest of full disclosure for those of you who watched this segment, NO – I do not have a Neil Gaiman signature tattoo and have no desire to get one. No offense to Neil Gaiman. Seriously, those fans are dedicated to a level I cannot fathom. I could understand maybe a tattoo of a key phrase from a book, or an image from a book, or an image of a book . . . but someone’s signature? Tattooed on you forever? I don’t get it. And we all know: if Neil Gaiman thinks that’s weird, then it really is really weird.

Please note: If you taped this and haven’t seen it yet, there will be spoilers. So, thanks for visiting but maybe stop reading? Or not. You are totally welcome to keep reading. Your call. Or you can just watch the clip, which NBC has generously posted online (both link and picture shown below are completely the property of NBC, not me):

http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/video/neil-gaiman-on-the-american-gods-tv-adaptation/3056761

Prolific author Neil Gaiman, in all black, talks animatedly with late night talk-show host, Seth Meyers, about his recent book projects.

Neil Gaiman (left) talking to Seth Meyers (right) – all copyrights to NBC

Seth Meyers asked Neil Gaiman about the advice he gave to aspiring writers on how to write so much, to be so imaginative and creative, to be successful at it. And the advice Neil Gaiman gave is so wonderfully simple: “get bored”.

It makes sense. When you’re bored, your mind wanders. When your mind wanders, sometimes it comes up with crazy ideas and even crazier stories. Think back to high school and college – I would guess that everyone has a class (or two or twenty) that they know they spent more time daydreaming than listening to the teacher. Like in my Chemistry 2 class – I’m sure my professor was right and that information will be super important at some point in the future, but it will only be important to someone who isn’t me. I bet you lost interest in a class and daydreamed about what you thought you’d do later that day, or what you were going to eat, or how your spring break trip was going to be awesome.

And Neil Gaiman was right, too, that it can be hard to “get bored” these days. We have smartphones with social media and built-in cameras and apps that create memes. We have personal email and professional email. We have television with 400 stations and movies in 3D that are available at the touch of a button. We have books available in paperback or a tablet or audio. We have internet that gives us all the information we could ever want to have at any time of day. With so many things available to keep us entertained, how can we ever be bored?

Some people don’t do so well with being bored. My dog is probably bored all day long, but she’s happy to spend 96% of her time sleeping. I’m fairly certain she wakes up, thinks, “this room is boring”, and finds another room to nap in. That’s all she needs to be content. My kids, on the other hand, have no tolerance for it; I always know when they’re bored because they break things or try to glue things to the wall. (Note to others: glue stick will stick permanently to walls; you’re welcome.) It is a daily battle to make sure the kids do not get the opportunity to reach that level of boredom.

So I thought about it. I am rarely bored. I have two kids that generally keep me busy, or at least preoccupied. I love to read, so if I do ever have time to be bored then I am probably going to pick up a book. And, yes, I spend time on social media and the internet and watching TV. I’m pretty sure I could handle being bored, but the opportunity to do so rarely presents itself.

So I thought about it some more. And I realized some of my favorite vacations are those when I am forced to “get bored”. Like when you’re on a cruise ship with no internet and no phone and crappy TV and all you want to do is lie on deck by the pool with an icy adult beverage and let your mind float. Like when you go camping and there is no phone and no TV and definitely no internet and all you can do is go hiking along a river or sit around a campfire. I like to know I am literally disconnected from all the distractions that usually are so readily available. I like that the kids and husband have no choice but to do things with each other to create our own entertainment. I enjoy those times.

I kept thinking about it. I realized that when I’m on vacation, I almost take time to get bored. Isn’t that part of vacation? You go to the beach, you take time to sit in a chair and just look at the water – just look – with no book or music or distractions. You go to the mountains, you take time to sit around a fire pit with a hot chocolate and just stare at the fire as it dances around. You take a long drive, you take time to pull off at a scenic pass and just enjoy the view.

But why don’t I do that more often? When I’m at home living my day-to-day life, why don’t I purposefully take time to be bored? I spent about 30 seconds searching online and can find no rule or requirement that restricts boredom to vacation. There is nothing preventing me from sitting on my porch and listening to the wind chimes in the morning. Or walking the dog in the evenings when it’s cool. Or taking time to enjoy a rainstorm and the way things smell right when the rain ends. Most of my boredom – when my mind wanders – is right before I fall asleep. But why couldn’t I seek out boredom more proactively?

And thus, a new goal: be bored. Get bored. Find boredom. Take time to put away the books and the phones and the laptops and turn off the TV. Maybe it will help me relax. Maybe it will help me get my thoughts organized. Maybe it will help with me generate ideas. Or maybe it will just be nice to find a few quiet moments during the craziness of the day and be able to enjoy the quiet. Either way, it probably won’t hurt anything.

So – get out there and get bored!

P.S. – there was no advance preview clip of “American Gods”. Bummer.

 

Discussion

  1. Eda

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