There’s a song by Iggy Pop on his under-appreciated, early 1980s, return-to-form album “New Values” entitled “ I’m Bored.” The first time I heard the song I thought I had stumbled upon my own personal anthem, written just for me. My self-importance notwithstanding, the song resonated because being bored is maybe the most difficult state a modern person can find themself in. Cue the “think-piece du jour” about the evils of smartphones, the internet, social media, etc etc etc… Its a fact that most of us cannot bear to be alone in our own heads for very long. The pacifying distraction of a devise in our hands, the doom scrolling; it all makes sense when we realize we all just hate to be bored. Bored for 5 minutes, bored at a traffic light, bored waiting for a coffee at Starbucks, bored at 3am when we can’t sleep.
I am am guilty as charged, of course. My mind races constantly. I am easily distracted. I spend much of my day by myself, working from and working in my little art studio. I also produce a podcast, I do improv, I make collages, I burn negatives, I melt wax and paint it on my pictures. I listen to podcasts, I look at Instagram, I listen to Spotify while barely paying attention to the songs that blare all day long. I go down rabbit holes on YouTube. All of this while answering endless emails and doing Zoom calls, and writing scripts and reviewing ads and crunching budgets for my job.
However, it is my challenge in the coming year to sit in my boredom when it arises. Listen to my mind when is races, stripping away the distractions that make that inner voice drown away. It can seem as a form of meditation, or self torture, but it is something I need to reconcile, or at least accept. “Alright, doll face, come on and bore me.”
