ON ISLANDS OF BOREDOM

 



“There are no uninteresting things,

only uninterested people.”

G.K. Chesterton

 

“I am a human, not a stone.” I keep reminding it to myself, whenever I feel bored.

Like everyone else, I, too, had invested so many years of my energy and time pursuing things dear to my heart. And, suddenly, like everyone else, I, too, felt disoriented and helpless during these uncertain months of  pandemic…

But then, is my situation as bad as so many around me? I am 63. What about those kids, young ones and the middle-aged? What about the very elderly and the sick?

It’s easy to say “I am bored” or “Life is boring”… Very easy.

But, what benefit does it serve?

Boredom is a natural state. As I said, if I am not a stone, I would experience it, now and then. But, if I complain about being bored, endlessly – and whether during the pandemic or normal times -  then, I say, that it’s sheer lack of zest for life…

Life is unpredictable. If we just accept this truth with our eyes and hearts open, we are able to stay zestful… Creativity is born in this state… Inventions and discoveries come from this state…

On the other hand, when we are not ready to accept the reality, that life is unpredictable, that it wouldn't always go as planned, take it from me, we are bound to rock our boats on the islands of boredom… That’s when we find ourselves constantly complaining – “I am bored” or “Life is Boring”…

Life can never be boring, Sir… We can be!





After decades, the other day, I was listening to a wonderful audio rendition of  the old classic ‘Robinson Crusoe’… What a story!  Crusoe loved to be at sea… He loved voyage. But, rough seas and shipwrecks are part of this ‘sea-love’ – aren’t they? So, when he was thrown on that godforsaken island and made to live there for some 28 long years – alone, with nothing to hope for and live with – what did he do? That makes this fiction so thrilling and inspiring! It’s creativity and zest at its best… You can, literally, touch hope!

Similar was the story of Nelson Mandela, who had to spend 27 long years in his tiny prison-cell on Robben Island… He was made to work like a slave, live with only a bucket and a jug , only one visitor could see him in one year, just for 30 minutes … All that he could do, caged alone inside the prison cell, was to see blue around him and blue above him. That’s all!

Was he bored?

Jawaharlal Nehru spent about 3,259 days (9 years) in various prisons during the freedom struggle…

Was he bored?

I don’t know, if we would have ever gotten to read ‘The Discovery of India’, and see a South Africa free of Apartheid, had Nehru and Mandela not been thrown into the isolation of their prison cells. I wonder, if we would have been ever enchanted by the story of Robinson Crusoe, had he not been thrown into that godforsaken island  for 28 long years!




Do I hear some around me shouting, “Good for Crusoe, Mandela and Nehru… What about us?”

Yes, what about us – the ones whose lives are not as desolate and dark as theirs?

Should we keep complaining – “I am bored” or “life is boring”?

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s.: 1.  www. pinterest.com 2. www.trendflickers.com

Video: Charlie Chaplin

 

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