Busy All the Time
When I was a kid, I learned early on about the “B-word,” a word that, if it slipped out, especially within earshot of my mother, would cause misery. I strictly avoided the B-word to the point where I did not even think it inside of my head, nor even come close to the concept it represents. My younger brother, on the other hand, said it regularly, often directly to our mother. When he did, both of us were punished. To this day, and he had his 54th birthday yesterday, I have harbored a grudge about all the times he said the B-word to our mother.
When I grew up and had children of my own, I taught them about the B-word. I am proud to say the lessons worked, and I have heard it very few times out of either of them. Despite the “misery” my mother administered over the B-word, I now see it as a gift that she taught me so well to completely and strictly avoid it.
My family’s B-word is BORED, as in “Mom, I’m bored.” This is what my brother would call my mother at work to say. She would come home and write a very long list of things for both of us to do, and none of it was fun nor even mildly pleasant. My brother’s B-word utterances caused lots of blisters on my hands. In my mother’s defense, she and my dad both grew up on farms where everyone participated as soon as they were able. My mother and her siblings were picking cotton from the time they could reach the bolls. I am not sure either of my parents even knew the B-word until my brother came along and learned to talk.
Having such an aversion to boredom has made me the kind of person who is always busy. As I have told my husband, even when he sees me sitting quietly, I am busy inside my head. The older I get, the more there is to think about. So many memories and questions and ideas are queued up in my brain, waiting their turn. Meanwhile, in the physical world, so many tasks and projects are queued up—who could get bored? It seems there is little time to even focus, much less be bored. I have decided this is one of the reasons I enjoy handwork like knitting and drawing so much—they keep one part of my brain busy so another part can focus.
Have you ever noticed how much trouble people get into because of boredom? It seems people get bored, start thinking about how to stir things up, then trouble and misery ensue. I cannot count the times I have thought or said, “He/she/ you should learn how to knit,” because I do not know a single serious knitter who gets bored. Of course there are other activities that could substitute for knitting, but then again, other activities do not result in socks! I will take socks over trouble or misery any day. How about you? SpringCreekArtsGuild@gmail.com