Sunday, November 4, 2012

I am getting bored!!!

Ever noticed the vast number number of toys out there - not for kids, but for adults. Grown ups don't call them toys - we call them gadgets. It's all around us. In fact, everything around us is some kind of a gadget nowadays. Gadgets are our way of fixing a big problem that we face in today's fast paced society - boredom. We all complain about not having enough time to do anything, we stay busy all the time. But we are also bored - we are tired of being too busy, getting up to do the same thing over and over everyday. We use the gadgets to relieve boredom - TV, computer, video games, texting, social networking, so on and so forth. But ever stopped and looked at the other side of these gadgets (no, not the side that says 'Designed in USA and Made in China'). Ever thought about the gadgets as objects that actually add on to our busy lifestyle - we don't have enough time for anything because we have too many of these toys to deal with!


We continuously seek things that help us feel different, a thing that would make one day different than the day before. We don't like to do the same thing over and over again everyday. Same goes for everything in our lives - food, clothing, TV shows, what we read etc. But if we look deep inside, we can see that we are all monotonous - built to repeat the same thing over and over again. We might not like to get up from bed in the morning, but we do anyway ; we might not like the same food everyday, but we eat everyday; we shower, we get dressed, we walk, run or sit; the places change, the situations change, but the events are repetitive. We take vacations to get away from repetitive lifestyle, but after a while even vacations become repetitious. The best example for such repetitive actions in life are little children - their life is so simple that it is so predictable. They can make the grown ups read the same book over and over again numerous times that the adults get bored with it, but the kids will enjoy the book the same the fiftieth time just as if it were the first time. This behavior of children points to a bigger truth about life and our Creator, as G.K. Chesterton points out in his book Orthodoxy:
Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.


Humans are created in the image of God, and nobody other than little children illustrates that similarity better. As stated by Chesterton, nothing exemplifies the monotonous nature of God better than innocent kids, they revel in repetition. We can easily find this characteristic of redundancy throughout everything that God has created, and we hardly ever see any resistance to repetition except from us, the humans. We believe in change, we believe that life is too boring if it is the same everyday. But do we really like changes? Deep down, we are always anxious about change. The best example could be taking a detour to work - taking a different road or different means of transportation because the one we usually take is unavailable on one particular day. If it is a road that we have never taken before, it will suddenly make us uncomfortable, even with numerous signs telling us that we are on the right path. We get agitated with changes in our workplace, we get antsy about moving our residences, and we are impatient when something or someone is late. Our life makes sense when we develop routines, and we are comfortable when there is an underlying tone of monotony in our actions. So, perhaps it might not be that grown ups require or desire constant change, it could very well be that we are ashamed. We think it is childish to do the same thing over and over again. We are revolting against our Father - we are telling Him that we are no longer babies and we do things the way we want rather than the way He intends it to be. In doing so we sacrifice our happiness, but we do it anyway just to show that we are grown ups - thickheaded and hardhearted adults. 

"All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change" (James 1:17). Many of the world religions, especially the Abrahamic ones - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, follow this monotonous, non-changing nature of God. They all follow religious practices that are repetitive. It is repetitive to love the same man or woman as husband and wife for the entire life as practiced by Catholics. Much of the prayers during a Sunday Mass or praying the Rosary just don't change no matter how many times we do it. But what we need to understand when we complain about the redundancy in such things is that it is the repetition that makes these things so unique. Just like repetition, God has also built change into the order of things. Every day in the life of a husband and wife is different from the day before, and no two 'Hail Mary' have the same feel. The same sun comes up every morning, but never at the same time nor at the same location. There are plenty of changes in our daily life even without us trying to change anything. We get in trouble when we try to change things just for the sake of change. Our lives become much more peaceful when we use the gadgets to facilitate our changing lives, rather than using them to bring changes.

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!" (Romans 11:33)

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