spynotes ::
  August 09, 2006
2x4

This is quite possibly the lamest entry I've ever written. This is what happens when I leave my writing to the end of the day. But because I haven't got anything better to say, I'm including it anyway. Read at your own risk.

* * * * *

In yesterday's half-hearted response to a half-assed article about inattentive mothering, a couple of you had some interesting things to say about boredom. Claudia pointed out that the problem with the definition of the inattentive parenting might have to do with a problem with the definition of boredom. And Erin said that she thought the problem was the aversion to boredom in the first place, that we think if we have a passion for a particular kind of work that no aspects of the work should be boring. This strikes me as spot on. We do have a problem with accepting boredom. Boredom is equated with demeaning. And yet most of us do a lot of boring stuff. We need to do a lot of boring stuff. We really need to learn to be okay with it.

An interesting counterpoint to this article might be another controversial article that appeared in the NY Times a week or two ago (I'm feeling too lazy to track it down at the moment so you'll have to take my word for it). The article was about men who were choosing to be out of work (and supported by their wives) rather than take "demeaning" jobs. The article and the subsequent flack it generated expressed fairly clear opinions � they're lazy, they're unmanly and they're using the rest of us by living on welfare. How can a man (and this was very much about men -- the women were the ones making ends meet and no one talked about their boring or demeaning jobs) give up gainful employment?

No one's saying it's easy to take a job at a lower level of responsibility than that to which you were accustomed. But I personally find it hard to imagine choosing a job over no job. It's hard to know how you'll be when the chips are down, but I'm pretty sure that I'd flip burgers before I'd go on welfare.

After reading Erin's comment on yesterday's entry, I started to wonder whether this was about boredom too.

What have we got against boredom? I personally enjoy the occasional boring task. It gives my brain a rest. If I can't handle the writing and research one day, I dig into data entry or filing. I'm not saying I love the tasks exactly, but they do give me a sense of accomplishment. Unlike writing, I know when I'm done. I do still find the task boring, however. I couldn't classify them as anything else. I don't feel like they're demeaning, though, because they're a part of a larger project and in my field, the mix of low and high intellectual activities is expected. Those further along in their careers get students to help with some of the more boring tasks, but there's no stigma attached to doing them yourself.

The same is not necessarily true in other lines of work, particularly in large corporations where tasks tend to be divided and stratified. There are people who do nothing but data entry.

There are also plenty of people who take jobs because they need the money, not because of any particular sense of vocation. These are the people who are probably getting the most angry at the willfully unemployed men.

Then there's the question that Claudia raised about what boredom actually is. I have always been under the impression that boring is a state of mind, that you are in control of your own boredom. If you are imaginative you never have to be bored. You can find things to occupy your mind even while doing the most tedious tasks. When you get bored, Claudia noted, is when you are too tired to either engage with the task at hand or figure out something better to do. Boredom may be exhaustion. This also seems right to me.

I can see that this is going nowhere fast, thanks to my own exhaustion (but certainly not boredom). But I'm wondering if we need to cultivate a culture of boredom, to celebrate it rather than run from it. Many of us have written about how important a certain amount of boredom is beneficial for children's development -- boredom can generate the good imaginative stuff. It builds inner resources (as long as they stay out of trouble). Why wouldn't the same be true of adults? Nature may abhor a vacuum, but perhaps we need a little more vacuum, a little more space.

I will contemplate this further. Right after I'm done being consumed with ennui.

5 people said it like they meant it

 
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