"Only boring people get bored!"
How many times have you been told that? If you are like me, you've probably heard it on several occasions. Is it true? I hardly think so. Genuinely interesting people get bored due to circumstance---and that is exactly what is happening to me right now. Don't get me wrong, I like where I am right now in my life. Being a senior at Oklahoma State University has its perks; not to mention the fact that I have two great jobs and a passel of wonderful friends (it goes without saying that my family is amazing, though I don't say that openly enough). But, the reality is, I'm bored. I haven't been "home" in probably a month. That means no hunting, no hounds, no shooting, no archery and no home cooking. Yaarrrrrrggghh. [That was my Chewbacca sound] Because of my isolation, I have developed a short attention span, melancholy attitude and increasing apathetic demeanor. I know that what I am doing right now paves the way for my future, which because of a ever-loving and merciful God, I know will be bright. But, I get so bogged down in the everyday routine. I get up and clean my room, go to class, work and then get home and finish my studies. Then, when I want to socialize it is 12 p.m. That stinks. What's worse is the fact that I realize that once I venture into the "real" world (really, is this world any less real?) that things aren't going to change.
What to do about it? The obvious answer is to increase my social interaction. That's a sound idea. However, I am an unorthodox person. I don't drink and don't like to be around those that are drunk. That excludes from 85% of the social interaction within my environs. Another 10% of that interaction is prohibitively expensive. Another 2% of that interaction involves unreasonable commitments that I am in no position to make. The question is, what is the remaining 3%? I think 1% of that involves researching miscellanea online (Stumbleupon, thou art the devil). But there has to be 2%, a measly 2% somewhere/somehow that is not only available to me, but interesting, rewarding, and productive.
Do people today have deep, meaningful conversations?
That is what I really want. Conversations about the nature of good. About the natural rights of man. About beauty. Where have all the conversations of flavor and depth gone? Are they done only by philosophers in some cold, academic fashion? Is television, sports, celebrities, and decadence all we really have to talk about anymore? Can't we sing without synthesizers? Can't we write poetry to each other? Have we as society really become this shallow? How real are the people we interact with, and how meaningful are those interactions?
Those are tough questions. I don't think most of us are ready to answer them. They aren't comfortable topics---because they reveal something about who we truly are. What is the stuff of our character? Just for once, I want to see people inside-out. I want to know them when I speak to them, not just some silly facade that has resulted from the pressures of society. I would venture to say that we experience, perhaps 1/10th of the richness that is in the character of the people that we interact with every day. What lies beyond the depths? How do we get there?
I always thought that each and every person has a song to sing. They reveal it to very, very few people. But, I know that it is there because I have one in my heart too. Every person sings in a different language, in a different genre, in a different style all their own, but too rarely do we get to hear their words. I think that I have found the solution to my drudgery. I am going to try to get at the very marrow of the people I interact with; and if they don't want to talk about something of consequence, I'll probably just move on.
