These
days, the phrase “pleasantly bored” might come close to describing my
lifestyle. I certainly don’t mean that my life is uninteresting or tedious, but
simply that it’s not as serious and unsmiling as it sometimes has been. I still
find life fairly fascinating, but in a more leisurely way – in a laid-back,
relaxing way that has loosened me up and allowed me to slow down among the
activities of my days. True, some of this is because I have recently retired
from my full-time work, but some of my softer, gentler approach to daily life stems
from slowly seeing, through the years, that being always focused – the opposite,
I guess, of being bored – can bring about an intensity that soon grows tiresome
for friends and family. For me, being intense about something has included
being almost severe in my attentiveness, and sometimes humorless as well. When
I was focused, I was not bored, true – not listless or uninterested – but I was
also sometimes not a pleasant person to be around. Nowadays, I am focused in a
more amiable way, a more good-humored and easygoing way. I am focused not so
much on the end results of activities, but on the pleasures that come from
partaking in the activities. I guess I shrug more than I used to, as when I say
to myself, “So you didn’t mow the lawn in absolutely straight lines. (shrug) So
what? (shrug) The grass is still green." If being bored means being listless, then yes, I’m sometimes bored
in the sense of lying back and letting the moments make themselves known as
they wish. If being bored means being uninterested, then yes, I could say that
I’m suitably bored at the age of 71, pleasantly bored, because I’m now entirely
uninterested in being perfect or the best or the brightest. If that’s being
bored, then I am seriously bored, and pleased to be so.
No comments:
Post a Comment