Through Facebook and Twitter I see a lot of “I’m bored!” comments and I always wonder how supremely busy, creative and innovative these people must have been to have gone through everything under the sun to now only be left with utter boredom. Apparently I’m not the only one wondering because I came across this post by Fevered Mutterings wondering the very same thing.
I mean, by being bored, they must have…
- Eagerly delved into everything Stanford, Harvard and Yale are offering up on iTunes, entirely for free…
- …and then filled any gaps with Academic Earth and Khan Academy.
- Prepared every single foodstuff suggested by Cafe Ferdando, especially the Momofuku Milk Bar Cereal Milk Ice Cream…
- Read all The Morning News, then all of World Hum, then every scrap of archived material from Brain Pickings, rounding things off with the Paris Review. (Well done. You’ve read some of – and read about some of – the best writing on the Internet. Admirable way to spend a couple of decades. I applaud your dedication).
- Read Lord Of The Rings yet again, except following the route in Barbara Strachey’sJourneys Of Frodo (which can be previewed here because someone’s scanned them, but really, the book is a toe-wiggling joy – but you know that, having bought it, right?).
- …and followed it up with a substantial dollop of TED-watching.
- Grasped the fundamentals of the 6,000+ living languages of the world.
- Successfully learned to do all 50 of these things…
- …and then somehow, against staggering odds, managing to fight your way through all 50 of these.
- Mapped yourself silly with the help of the incredible Strange Maps, GeoCurrents and BIG Map Blog.
- Read Nieman Storyboard until you learned how stories work…
- …and then written at least as many fiction and non-fiction books as Isaac Asimov.
- Sat outside and listened to the world – the birds, the weather and the bustle of humanity, the creak of your chair, the sound of your own breathing – until everything held absolutely zero novelty or interest for you. Been there? Done that? WOW.
- Learned to recite and draw the RCA Animates from memory.
- Read, and more importantly thunk deeply about, all the Change This manifestos.
- Addressed every lingering guilty regret, until you were satisfied you’d done absolutely everything you could to make amends, no matter how belatedly.
- And finally (because it’s important to have a sense of proportion here) – you’ve followed every single link in every single issue of Zunguzungu‘s Sunday Reading series.
I mean, there’s other stuff – but let’s face it, doing these things really ate up your free time. You’re allowed a little slack!
And I don’t want to sound unreasonable, of course. Or bitchy.
Anyway, I’ll let you get back to being bored.
Because you, my friend, deserve it.
