The benefits of boredom..

I can think of no better way to write this post than to use the words and images of people I took refuge in when I was really bored and aimlessly scouting for just anything under the sun and hidden somewhere in thin air .. Although technically that wouldn't qualify as being bored because i was reading interesting stuff and not really doing 'nothing'. 

(source:The heady thrill of having nothing to do)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486412642177904.html

For me the '2003' milieu extended till 2008 (maybe) because I read the following article on a boring lazy winter Sunday morning in Kolkata. I don't remember if it was TOI or Telegraph because we got either depending on the newspaper dada's whim. I couldn't agree less with the article so i took my pen and diary and wrote the damn thing down. Reproducing it here so that I have a electronic version with me (Google didn't show up anything when i tried searching) and sharing it across with the few loyal readers I have!

'Boredom's doldrums are unavoidable, yet also a primordial soup for some of life's most quintessentially human moments..

 A long drive home after a frustrating day could force ruminations. A pang of homesickness at the start of a plane ride might put a journey in perspective. Increasingly these empty moments are being saturated with productivity, communication and the digital distractions offered by an ever-expanding array of slick mobile devices.

We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life's greatest luxuries- one not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing something (can't figure out the actual word). To be bored is to stop reacting to the external world and to explore the internal one. It is in these times of reflection that people often discover something new, whether it is an epiphany about a relationship or a new theory about the way the universe works. Granted many people emerge from boredom feeling that they have accomplished nothing. But is accomplishment really the point of life?

There is a strong argument that boredom-so often parodied as a glass-eyed drooling state of nothingness is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science and even love...'

This breezy read was followed by a philosophical entry from a book, 'The unbearable lightness of being' that I read in Hyderabad, 2010. The book did not talk of commonplace boredom that we experience in short spells of idleness. It talked about a chronic aimlessness, emptiness, ‘lightness’. I felt that the following extract beautifully captures the whole essence of the book 

“The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?”-Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.

This is the thing with philosophers they can use dense arguments in the opening and the middle only to leave it open ended in the end... I love to do the same sometimes when I post a blog at 1:39 am.

Lets Dance creatively!

We talked about creativity as practiced by choreographer Twla Tharp.We tried to experience her creative mantra to interpret space and movements to script our own dance act.

"An arrow from the quiver hit the dainty mortal, who hit the ground and the soul took flight"
From four random words we pieced together this metaphor. As Marianne  guided the group through various dance steps and tried to help us experience Twla Tharp book, I felt a stronger comradeship with the small group. So the book, the instructor and the group together created something extraordinary in the class!

As we discussed various aspects of the book, I was wondering about the two schools of creativity. Creativity as interpreted by Twla Tharp is a structured exercise. She has a routine that she follows, she plans, gets things done speedily, she has mastered the art of translating ambiguity into measured and structured dance acts.
The rock-n-roll cult music graduates from the other school of creativity. It is a different lifestyle one which espouses freedom over structure. The science here is ambiguous and no rock artist can explain the process in a book, or teach it in a class.

To each his own!
Every time I read a book where some one shares his experiences at mastering some skill of life I feel that not everything espoused in the book can be directly applicable to any individual. I look around for pieces that resonate with me and that I can adapt in my own life. During my reading of the book, I liked the idea of Where's Your Pencil?, the equivalent of observing and registering everything around you so that you can crystallize it into something purposeful. She also delves in detail over the entire process of first scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves.

Hopefully I should be able to adapt some parts of the book in my life or at-least in my dance!