I do not usually understand “I’m bored”

This is not to say that I’m never bored. Trapped in someone else’s time frame WILL bore me silly. In a long meeting that is top down?

I was reading on Facebook about some actual acquaintance of mine whose family was out of town for the weekend. He was expressing how lonely and bored he was, as he didn’t know what to do with himself. I thought it was rather sweet and endearing, actually.

Still, I also found it odd. On those rare occasions that my wife takes The Daughter to visit the grandparents, I miss them. But I always have a litany of things to read, watch and/or listen to, and other projects. I am never bored by my own company, probably a function of living alone more than half my adult life.

This is not to say that I’m never bored. Trapped in someone else’s time frame WILL bore me silly. In a long meeting that is top-down? A yawn; Presbyterians have LOTS of meetings, which I avoid as much as possible. Stuck three hours in Wal-Mart (and it HAS happened)? REALLY boring – it’s shopping, which I dislike, and it’s Wal-Mart, which I’m not fond of. The only way that situation would have been salvageable is if I had had something to read and a place to sit down and read it. IF there’s something to read, AND I have the opportunity to do so, I am NEVER bored.

When, if ever, are you bored?

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

8 thoughts on “I do not usually understand “I’m bored””

  1. Hm. Are you bored when somebody is just talking about them? That’s the one I usually hear. (I actually don’t get bored from that, which is why I subscribe to a lot of blogs where people just talk about their daily lives.)

    The only time I can think of that I’m really bored is when I’m trapped in a movie theater with friends. The movie is terrible, no one can talk to make fun of it and there is no escape for 2 hours. Then I get the picture in my head of Alex from Clockwork Orange with those little clamps keeping his eyes open.

  2. I think I understand what your friend is saying. When my lot are away, leaving me on my own, I’m not so much bored as bereft. By that I mean that I have this nagging feeling that I should be doing something that involves them in some way and that makes it hard to relax. By the time I’ve shaken off the feeling they’re home again!

  3. I work in a medical facility, so we have Careplan meetins, some people feel the need to go over the clients life history over and over, even though everybody knows the story from the last six times we talked about the person! Snore!

  4. Roger, I love your examples of boredom. Me? I don’t think I’m ever bored. Part of it is the magnificent panorama of mental disorders I possess (no, they don’t possess me!). But truly, I always keep a journal and pencil at hand. Even in line at the bank, I can always doodle, scribble notes, play that game where you write a word like “fortification” and see how many 4-letter words you can wring out of it… I taught my daughter, “If you always have a paper and pencil, you’ll never be bored.” And now she’s in art school! She really listened, huh? ha ha Peace, Amy the battered Wisconsinite
    http://sharplittlepencil.com/2012/06/07/fortress-in-mind/

  5. My husband is perpetually bored. Yet when I suggest that he wash dishes or do something else productive, he just laughs at me. Go figure.

  6. “Trapped in someone else’s timeframe.”

    That’s brilliant. I totally get that kind of boredom.

    I am a college prof, so I wind up sitting through a lot of meetings held by someone more Important than I am, and who likes to hear themselves talk. I’m not quite secure enough in my position to be able to whip out my knitting and go to work on it (as I have seen women closer to retirement than I do), but a lot of times I really wish I COULD.

  7. Boredom is an accomplishment. I like being bored. It means everything is just fine, thank you. I can do without unnecessary excitement.

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