BORED?

 

‘A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men, of men divorced from the slow processes of nature, of men in whom every vital impulse slowly withers as though they were cut flowers in a vase.’ This quote by the great Bertrand Russell really had me researching on the concept of boredom and it drove me to his book ‘The conquest of happiness.’

All my life I have lived fully in pursuit of the deep seated desire for excitement and this thing of boredom never really sits well with me. Russell argues that we, as the human race, have come to believe that boredom is not part of the natural lot of man but can be avoided by a sufficiently vigorous pursuit of excitement.

He counters that belief by asserting that a life too full of excitement is exhausting and that we need a certain power of enduring boredom in order to live a happy life. This power is learnt in childhood but since you and I seem to have missed that memo I think we will have to learn it as adults.

How and where do I begin this learning? Well, I think the first step is to understand that we are the creatures of the earth and the rhythm of earth life is slow. When this reality sinks, then we can check the pleasures in which we indulge in whether or not they are in contact with the life of the earth because modern urban populations suffer a kind of boredom which is intimately bound up with their separation from the life of the earth.

It is not that boredom has any merits but certain good things are not possible except where there is a certain degree of it. Some element of it is a necessary ingredient of life.

What I am driving at is that we need to appreciate and embrace normalcy, routine, repetitions, consistency, the mundane, just regular stuff and forego the idea that life needs to be this grand opera. All the great novels contain boring passages and even the lives of great men of old were not all exciting save for a few great moments. I know it will take time before this reality sinks in, but it will be one of the greatest discoveries one could make.

And since most of this article are just excerpts of this great author, it is only wise to sum it up with one of his greatest conclusions; a happy life must to a great extend be a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.