Slow update
I’d like to thank my friend Matthew for sending this article from the Boston Globe.
I asked a question on LinkedIn recently about what boredom felt like.
Some people who answered could not admit to feeling bored at all. Everyone is different, but surely not experiencing boredom would somehow be less than human. Don’t we all feel bored at times? Just the mention of PowerPoint can sap my energy and bring on a state of ennui.
What exactly is boredom? The online dictionary doesn’t help with much of a description, but boredom does seem to be an unpleasant state.
I usually equate boredom with fatigue, not that pleasant state of still awareness that you can develop from slowing down. I’ve been thinking much about opposites lately. Once you invoke a thought or an idea, you also bring into being its opposite. There can be no yin without yang, no wet without dry, no short without tall. I think it’s necessary to be bored just like you can’t continue to breathe in, you have to breathe out.
For me, I don’t think I am ever bored without feeling tired. Like mood, there is always movement. Either that mood is becoming stronger or weaker.
The article mentions Hallowell’s book CrazyBusy. Although I haven’t read it (and probably won’t), here is part of one review:
This book has some good advice about avoiding multitasking when you need to do quality work. I like its basic attitude about seeing our current craziness as an opportunity. I enjoyed the discussion of slow processors and how they contribute to human progress. I think Hallowell is a little too optimistic about what technology can do to improve human life…
And the reason for few posts on this site is I am writing a book about a slow world that takes place in a fictional village near Oxford. There is a fair amount of tea drinking and golf in this book that speaks of Marion Crumpetworthy the barmaid at the Maiden’s Arms, a cursed golf course that is so horrible it only appears once a year, the healthy Amanda Bassington, the smug Grant Manly, Lady Cassandra Dribble, and how Lady Fiona plays a round with the vicar of Warmsly after Lord Alistair went missing.
Make sure you are on the slow reminder list and I’ll let you know when it’s finished.
Yours in slowness,
Christopher
The book sounds intriguing, vaguely reminiscent of Robert Rankin… I assume the RSS feed will pass as a substitute for the slow reminder list?
No rush for a reply. #8-)
Ooh, that Boston Globe article’s a bit of a long one… I’ll have to print/read it when bored!
Regarding boredom… I think the French “ennui” somehow seems more indicative of the mood I personally associate it with…
One can be slow without being bored. Boredom = a kind of depression, perhaps… feeling uninspired with life or the things it offers you… I can still feeling totally happy and… um… “un-bored” (what’s the opposite of bored?)… whilst doing absolutely nothing… except perhaps thinking, mulling, musing…
Or perhaps there are different versions of boredom? Positive and negative boredom? Anyway, I shall ingest the Globe article and return for further commentary herewith!
I am greatly looking forward to the golf story, by the way… if it is indeed “vaguely reminiscent of Robert Rankin,” as suggested by Shadowduck, I will be most pleased - Mr R being my favourite comic author!
Thanks. I haven’t heard of Robert Rankin, and I appreciate now knowing about him. But I’ll resist reading him until I am done with my story. Although I would like to know who is agent is.
The RSS feed and the story reminder list are two different things. The Slow Story Reminder list is for articles on SlowDownNow.org which are not syndicated.
I think Brenda my anti-muse distracted me this morning. I had better get back to it. Thanks for the comments.
I have read Ed’s book on CrazyBusy. It is worth the read. The single biggest reason we get crazybusy is we lose connection with what the most to us. When we are crazybusy it is time to encoure we reconnect with what matters most. We can’t have too many things master most so in your book it sounds like Golf and Tea would be pretty important. All the best with your book.
Yikes, I went too fast on the above comment.
It should say, what matters the most to us.
I don’t know what encoure means, it sounds French, but it was supposed to be ensure.
We can’t have too many things matter the most.
Yikes, I butchered that comment above.
It seems ironic that I would do this on a site that encourages us to slow down now!
In my case boredom is connected to my expectations of how things should be.
Without expectations, boredom turns into a nice, deliciously slow day.
Albert @ Headspace
http://thoughtsintime.co.za
While the cell phone generation thinks it is unthinkable to turn off the device, I’ve come to dub them “generation empty battery” due to the number of times I couldn’t reach someone who later told me their phone had run out of juice. Unconsciously trying to be disconnected, at least for a short time?
Chris… as you will see when you next check your inbox, I have CC’d you in on an email I have sent to the writer of that article - I thought she deserved a direct response!
I now feel I should send the article to everyone I know… everyone needs to learn of the delights of boredom!
Thanks Dan,
I came across an article in Atlantic Monthly ( I think it was) about multi-tasking. I’ll try to dig it up and write a post in a few days.
David,
I have pressed that “Submit Comment” button before I’ve proofed my writing too. You don’t need to feel alone.
Yours in slowness,
Christopher