|
go here to buy my stock photography
Alan Creech
 Custom Search
merton icon sites & things i like
abbey of gethsemani faith communities christ the king blogs i read
aaron klinefelter
|
March 06, 2006
> 9:27 PM
boredom I'm bored daddy. I hear that all the time. My typical response is something like, "I can't do anything for you ______________, it's not my job to cure your boredom." Boredom is not a universal. Did you know that? This concept called boredom is bound up inside our respective cultural contexts. The idea that my run through our minds from day to day, that there is "nothing to do" is about as universal as thinking "blond haired girls are pretty." Sorry girls, but not everyone has that ingrained in their mind structure. There are certain cultures, people within those cultures, who have a hard time with silence, with quiet. We are one of the worst. I know that I am a part of that culture. It sounds funny, perhaps, for mister monastery to say, but I have a real problem with quiet and stillness. I like noise. I like music, even what I like to call background music to be playing even when I'm doing nothing. Yeah, yeah, I know, a good Lenten discipline for me might be some reeeaally quiet time with no noise at all. Wow. Scary. I get so frustrated with my kids, though, when they say that. "I'm bored" seems like a give-up kind of statement, a cop-out. Usually, what it means is that there is nothing to entertain me at the moment, please entertain me! Our minds crave action, motion, noise, movement. One good thing is, you're alive. OK, your mind is active and wants to do something - nothing inherently wrong with that. This basic living activity isn't what I'm talking about though. I'm talking about constant desire for stimulation on an abnormal level. We don't even know what abnormal means in this regard any more I don't think. Even those who study such things scientifically are steeped in the cultural goop they're trying to understand. It's very difficult to step outside that mess and look in on it from some pure place where you can see all the untainted norms and measure everything against them. Very difficult. Thought-work can be done on it though. I believe that. We've got to see what we've created for ourselves - a world full of constant visual and auditory stimulation. Not only that, but one also of actual physical and chemical stimulation being encouraged and sought after in ways that go far beyond normal human existence. Music and talk everywhere, all the time. Television, movies, videos, constantly streaming into our eyes and ears. We can't just take a walk, we have to run. We can't just run on an even path, we have to run cross-country. We aren't satisfied by going on a trip, we have to climb a mountain at the top of which, we cannot breath properly, in the cold in which we often lose a finger or a toe. We can't stand calmly on the edge of a cliff, looking at the amazing view, we feel it necessary to jump off the cliff with a parachute on our backs. We jump off bridges with stretchy strings tied to our ankles for Christ's sake! It's a little out of hand when you step back and look at it. Obviously, this carries over into our spiritual lives, into church, etc. Our lives are one. We can talk about them like they're segmented but they're not in reality. Everything we think and believe spills over into everything else. There is no real separation. So, are you bored with God? Are you bored with your "walk?" How are things with your church, your faith community? Frustrating? Nothing happening? Hmmm. Yeah, I thought so. So, we look up and say "I'm bored Daddy!" - I mean, "Send revival Lord!" - "Let the fire of your Spirit fall so we'll feel your Presence again O God!" I pray and I pray and I pray and nothing happens! I go to church every week and we do the same things over and over; pray, read Scripture, have Communion, talk, Teach, preach, talk to each other and leave. Nothing ever happens! We should perhaps step back a bit (I know it's hard) and see how much of a little kid we sound like sometimes. Entertain me Daddy, swing me around again! Yeah, I understand that from a 4 year old, but when you're 30, uuuuhhhh, maybe you want to stop. Understand, boredom is conditioned. It's not innate. We learn to be bored. And we can unlearn it. It takes a long time though. Sounds fun doesn't it? Let's sit quietly and practice. Grace be with us. technorati tags > boredom, culture, acculturation, christianity, spirituality, spiritual life Labels: spiritual formation 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
|
daily prayer
ordinary time lectionary readings > today
my blog post labels
blogging archives
|
038
