On Being Bored

Young or old, one of the most down-pulling attitudes in life is being bored. Sometimes we become bored with routine, with what we feel are repetitious and unchallenging tasks. But there is repetition and routine in all assignments, in all activities and occupations.

Teachers have hundreds of lessons to teach. Artists practice over and over again before performing. Doctors have patients to see and symptoms to listen to, countless repetitious times. Those who make things, those who do things, those who direct others to do things, do them over and over again. And so it is, from the least responsible to the most responsible position.

Perhaps no one knows better than wives and mothers about repetition and routine⎯with thousands of dishes to be washed; with clothes, over and over again, to be cleaned and tended to; meals to be cooked time after time⎯and unnumbered other chores unnumbered repetitious times. But drudgery and boredom are relieved by love and appreciation, and by a sense of service.

Even the work of God, it would seem, must be repetitious, because life is renewed, commandments repeated, and the seasons follow in succession. Sunrise is repetitious⎯and springtime, and so are all seasons.

Life, fortunately, is repetitious. And there can be satisfaction in the simplest assignment, and there can be boredom in the most exciting assignment⎯depending on the inner attitude.

Despite all repetition and routine, every new day is a miracle, an opportunity, and every essential service is its own reason for living every day of life. Every unknown truth is an endless invitation. Even if we are confined physically, our minds can range widely over the earth.

“Life is always opening new and unexpected things for us,” wrote Phillips Brooks. “There is no monotony in living to him who walks… with open and perceptive eyes. The monotony of life, if life is monotonous to you, is in you, not in the world.”

Do your work; meet life as it is; know that each service is essential⎯and never be bored.