Bore is a 4 letter word at our house. It started out years ago, in graduate school, when I was a Teaching Assistant who taught composition classes. All TAs took a how-to-teach-composition class. My students were already pummeling me with this quality-work killing frame of mind, “This topic is boring.”
I asked our mentor, “What do you say when they complain the topic is boring?”
He said something lofty like, “Boredom is a state of mind.”
Through the years I have blue-cottton-ified that definition: “To say I am bored is to say I am too dumb to make it interesting.”
My cheeky freshman has been saying for year, “Mama, I’m bored. I’m just too dumb to make it interesting.”
At least my definition made it through 2 sons before it became satirized. None of my college students dared that; however, I was not their mama.
When my boys let the word “bore” slip out, sigh, we have a discussion. Really, they are saying they have nothing interesting to do. That is when they have 3 choices:
- Sit and stew in their nothing-interesting-to-do-ness, but do it where their suffering affects only them.
- Reach down inside and pull out their God-given creativity and ingenuity to create an interesting (albeit law-abiding) moment. This is a problem-solving skill that needs to be developed – the ability to look from without to within and create action.
- Grab a book and set off on an adventure.
Even my cheeky boy ultimately wonders off to create an interesting moment. After all, it is his life. He needs to learn to create an interesting life. His mama cannot do it forever!
If Tolkien had not climbed out of boredom into thoughtful creativity, we would have had no Lord of the Rings. If C.S. Lewis had not chosen active creativity over boredom, we would be without The Chronicles of Narnia. Without Christopher Columbus, how long before the world would be considered round? Or our Founding Fathers, without imagination, could they have thought a free nation into existence?
Without imagination, could we have a cure for Polio or be able to fight infections with antibiotics?
If the world were bored, would we have lights to turn on, the All American Burger, the Ford Mustang, Starbucks, refrigerators, chipolte sauce, heart and lung replacements?
Boredom is the weed that chokes out flowering imagination!
Blue Cotton Memory 
I love your posts, because I could have written them myself. thanks for helping me raise my own “bored” little boy. 🙂
Whenever my kids say they are bored, I give them some work to do like laundry! lol It works. 🙂
I like this sentiment!
Love this post. We are on the same page.
I say “Stew and enjoy being bored for as long as you can”.
Because I trust that as a human beings: creativity is going to take over soon”. Never fails.
Stopped over from SITS. Enjoy making your violet jelly. xxx
Exactly…I used to tell my kids “I guess you just aren’t one of those creative types…” That always did it — they rose to the challenge! I think my kids are some of the most creative kids I know…they just got bitten by the l.a.z.y. bug every now and again! 🙂
Thank you for the visit. To answer your question: No I have never made a sock scarf. It is an idea to work on for next winter…
Bye for now. xxx
I hate that word. I totaly agree with what you wrote so well!
My highschool senior English teacher wouldn’t allow us to used that word either. He said if we MUST say something, we should at least say, “I’m suffering from ennui.” After four years of college and three kids of my own, I still think of that phrase!
Stopping over from SITS.
Love this post! Everything you posted is right on the mark.
This is a great one to use on the playground. Maybe playing with a jumprope or ball, swinging or hopscotch would be an adventure if a child puts some imagination into it. Thanks.
My blog address is http://life-be-in-it.blogspot.com/
Take care,
Nannette
I always tell my kids that “bored” is attitude that is bad so change it! LOL