The other day I overheard a little boy who was being coaxed into going back to a class say, “It’s not fun in there! It’s boring!”
At that particular moment I was sharing his sentiment. I did not find what I was doing to be very fun either and it was tilting very much toward boring. In fact, I was rather wishing that I could go into the class the little boy was refusing to enter. I could hear the children inside laughing and singing. It didn’t sound boring to me.
I suppose boring is pretty much a matter of perspective. Quite often we are called upon to do things that are not very entertaining, that may even be unappealing to us. We may whine and complain and murmur and wish ourselves somewhere else. We may even feel a sense of rebellion and shut our minds and hearts to whatever the situation has to offer. It seems that we spend a lot of time and effort struggling against what life is offering us.
Perhaps, if we were more willing to open ourselves to the moment, to choose to embrace every experience we encounter with a sense of curiosity and wonder, the word boring would no longer be in our vocabulary. Imagine a life that was never boring. We would choose to face each day with excitement, making the most of each event, learning and growing and going to bed at night fulfilled instead of grumpy and frustrated.
I admit that it is far easier to expect others to entertain us. That being the case, the word boring will probably stay with us. Yet, I do believe that each time we choose to reject boring and see possibility we will be that much closer to wisdom.
“…non-murmurers are permitted to see so much more.” —“Neal A. Maxwell