There are times when one’s soul confounds the crashing miseries of somber and pain; i.e., one embraces the melancholy and sadness that come with suffering moments. But the wisdom lies not in living in excess of either soaring heights or crashing depths. For even when life appears to stand still, wisdom dictates that it is no less than a life when viewed under the lenses of the principle of moderation. Herein boredom takes on a new whole new layer of meaning.

Boredom is an experience not everyone would welcome with much pondering and reflection. It is too often referred to as behavioural withdrawal towards an external environment or stimuli marked by significant amount of disinterestedness and an obvious sense of listlessness. It stems from a host of causes. There are those who say that it is a disease linked to depression; still others contend that its presence is an axiomatic condition for all humans. It is almost always a highly subjective in nature. But far from being useless, boredom in fact enables people to appreciate the full tonality of human existence – i.e., life has its own towering heights, crashing depths and the whole layer of inactivity lying in between.
One can take the field of arts as a case in point. In many instances, artful expressions such as paintings and sculptures, as well as architecture and stained-glass opuses, are the ones that best elicit not only the approval of the people viewing them, but also their distaste as well. In any event certain artistic expressions bring a person towards an unfortunate boredom, this does not mean they are all together lifeless. The very intricate details of art reveal the combination of highlights and shadows; they reveal depth and height, as well as fineness and coarseness; they weave the lucidity of bright colors and dullness of monochromatic grays. True, the relative boredom which certain artful expressions elicit may stem from standards of personal taste. But from there one can realize that art in itself combines both the elements of life and lifelessness; art itself embraces the fact of boredom. In it, the rule of moderation takes control. Even arts for that matter embrace a fair amount of dullness as its constitutive element, surely well within its purposeful grasp and usage.
Along the same vein, one may likewise glean reflections about boredom using his or her experiences of the society. Particularly, this may entail looking at one’s relationships as a way to concretely illustrate the point. It is needless to say that people find themselves in a network of relationships. Surely, not all of them fall into the same plane. There are relationships, say, with persons whom we consider special, from where one gathers much contentment and enjoyment; there are relationships, say, with an enemy, which cause anxiety and stress. In between these are persons who neither make one feel special nor make one feel rather sore. This can be very true for a couple or lovers. Sometimes, because of longevity and too much familiarity, a couple may go through a period of dullness, if not disinterestedness. These are the times when a couple is undergoing a stage with neither a passion for romance nor a cause for disagreement; a moment of complete standstill, to say in other words. But it is also these exact moments of boredom that true discernment actually comes into play. When one is confronted with stillness, one is able to look at the place of all things in a fair perspective. One gets to weigh things or relationships as they truly are. The promise of barrenness lies in how it enables a person to proceed with a thoughtful consideration of things or relationships, and thereby renew his or her interest towards them, which has been lacking from quite some time.

Boredom is a constitutive element of life, an element which brings into play the principle of moderation. Life indeed does teach that human existence consists in an aggregate of events that do not necessarily have to be momentous and tragic. For most part, life is ordinary, and admittedly boring. There are times when jadedness pitches its tent into the heart of an individual; and it is indeed an issue that needs to be addressed. But therein too lay the promise of barrenness. Listlessness is part of the game called life; it ensures that one’s experience of bliss or ecstasy is tempered, inasmuch as one’s experience of depression or grief is levelled. Boredom is a catalyst for deep reflection. It makes a person think of the larger meaning of life, which too often is veiled by the irrational nature of one’s emotional baggage. It pushes a person to think hard of his or her present situation. In the ultimate analysis, it is actually boredom that brings into the fore the elements of joys and sorrows in one’s life. For without boredom, one can never have a reference to measure how happy or miserable life is for him or her in the very first place.

Copyright Last Exit 2008