Boredom and tops songs!
Before I start on the topic of boredom and so on, I recently heard a TOPS song by Madeleine Peyroux. I really like Madeleine Peyroux’s album Careless Love, but I hadn’t heard her song ‘Was I?’ before. She released the album with this song on it (Dreamland) 12 years ago, so it’s not like I didn’t have a chance to hear it before, I just never looked into what albums she had around so in love with Careless Love was I.
Boredom
A friend of mine microblogged that ‘[I] am glad to be bored sometimes…’ and referenced an article at Boston.com ‘The joy of boredom‘ and it got me to thinking. I have recently started work at a new place of employment and have been sitting pretty idle for the last couple of weeks…basically doing nothing, and I was bored. Upon reading this article, I started to appreciate boredom a little more (and wished I had considered this article earlier so that I could have utilised my time more creatively, but then I wouldn’t have been bored anymore).
During that time, that so much time that was available to me, I considered many things, about myself and also about my future. Would I want to stay here for longer, pondering the benefits of time – having it, that is, and what possibilities it really holds.
I digress somewhat from the article, which ponders time past, when having time to be bored was a common occurance and the only distraction was your ponderous thoughts. It was a time for reflection, and inspiration – sure there wasn’t a feeling of accomplishment to accompany thought processing, nor a hightening of productivity, but as the article asks ‘is accomplishment really the point of life?’
In fact the article goes on to argue strongly that ‘boredom — so often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness — is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science, and even love.’ WOW! What a statement for the need for time, and especially the time for nothing. I keep turning around in my life to see that time is at the essence of Western affluence, and ultimately the issues we face today, and I wonder if ‘thinking we need more time in our lives’ is the biggest lie that we face today. Isn’t it true that we have enough time for each of the things we need to do each day, if only we used it more wisely/ cut down on that activity or those activities.
Maybe it is not just limited to activities but also to things in our lives. As the article goes on it discusses the new ‘Trinity’ we have in our lives, nope, its not the holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – although the way we behave might indicate that it is, it is the other trinity – Keys, Wallet, Mobile Phone – the things that we can’t leave the house without!
I have been thinking on the topic of ‘being alone’ or having ‘alone time’ for some time – mainly due to rarely having it, and not actively pursuing it either. Have we used social connectedness to dull our senses to needing spiritual connectedness? To the ‘great mysteries of the world: what is truth, what is beauty, what is being?’ (E.G. Wilson, quoted in the article)
Anyway it is a (number of) thoughts to ponder on (and about time to stop with the post as it was getting wayyy to long).
Job Search
Do you like to sell yourself? Maybe you do, but in my universe I have yet to meet someone who actually likes the process.
- Seek (A.K.A. trawl the web),
- Find (I have some of those skills/aptitudes),
- Sell (to the nth power),
- Receive offer (or not), and
- Accept (maybe even sign yourself away if you aren’t careful).
I like working, love it in fact. I passionately dislike being bored which leads to finding work being particularly important. But to do so you need to sell yourself.
Why does it feel like I have to act, rather than be who I am. I go into job interviews and know that they are judging my ability to perform in the next n years on my ability to perform in the next half an hour or hour. Doesn’t that really make you feel icky? I know it is a way of life, and it is potentially a good way to determine if a candidate will fit into the company culture and has the ability to build up their skill base if they don’t already have it, so I’ll face reality and any job interviews head on. But I will always hope that we will be able to find better ways of determining candidate eligibility.
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