But there’s nothing to do there!

One thing I have yet to be in my career at Houghton is bored. I have lived here on or near campus for the all but three of the last 40 months. That’s 37 months of being at least 40 minutes from Walmart, at least an hour from a ‘real’ shopping mall, at least thirty minutes from a 4 star restaurant. And it seems like lightyears from the ‘real world.’

But with all this distance separating me from the rest of the world, I have yet to ever really feel bored. I think this has a lot to do with the kind of people I find myself with the majority of my time here. Houghton has an amazing blend of people from all over the world whose daily influence on me allows me to take part in a global network of experience.

Also, the majority of my time is spent in academics, exploring topics and regions I’ve never experienced before. By submerging myself in information I find it almost impossible to be bored, there’s always more to learn!

While I have lived in Houghton for the last three and a half years, I realize that this isn’t much time at all. There are community members who’ve been here a lot longer, like my land lady who has been here for over fifty years. And while she doesn’t get out to the College Choir concerts (why do they have to be so loud and angry all the time? she asked me at my last hour-long rent-paying visit) she certainly doesn’t seem to be bored.

through the eyes of an artist

I have had my eyes opened to art the last couple of years. I started dating an artist about 6 months after transferring to Houghton. Since then my appreciation for art has grown for no other reason than exposure. Sure, I took art in high school for four years, but was never introduced to vast theories and practices that art encompasses. Because of this recent exposure I have grown to not only appreciate art, but also artists.

In Rochester there is a place called the Genesee Art Education Center. They have a community dark room, community wheels and kilns, and a book arts center. My girlfriend, Margaret volunteers at the center for access to their book arts center where she has started using their letterpresses and paper making studio to start her own small business called Nightingale Handmade.  It is a pretty amazing place. It gives people access to continue feeding their passion for art. This means of expression can be an amazing release for people to participate in.

I feel much of our culture is pent up in a cubicle where they are told what to do and how to do it. That is not the way to exist. We have been given far more than this. I desire to express little more than this: express yourself, see the world through your own eyes. To gain this perspective may I suggest trying the eyes of an artist.

Boredom: Thoughts Inspired from the Summer of ’04

The summer of 2004 was the most boring period of my entire life. I worked at a medical clinic that was in the process of moving their paper files into a digital filing system. I spent 40 hours, 5 days a week for 3 months in a basement cell sorting through the medical files of dead people and then scanning them into the computer system. Atrocious is the only word that describes this summer.

Boredom is one of my biggest fears, which is why I suggested this blog topic in the first place. I am petrified that I will one day wake up at the ripe old age of 45, and realize that my life is a bore and that I am boring and I am bored with life.

How many of us become ensnared by the world’s rat race? We graduate from college, find a spouse, buy a house, pop out some kids and find a decent paying job that will pay for piano lessons and groceries and feed our retirement fund (roughly in that order). How many of us wake up with an anticipation of the adventure that awaits us in our day? How many of us live and breathe their vocation?

This blog entry sounds terribly cynical.

What I’m getting at is this – while we try to keep up with America’s consumer appetite, while we work to pay off our credit card debt, while we strive for the suburban dream, we lose our wildness. We lose our very souls. And we are boring ourselves to death.

Never be lacking in zeal, my friends. Live out your vocation, live out your passion and don’t settle for anything less.

Laughter

the image above is one that almost always send me into fits of laughter whenever i see or think of it. and i would love to tell you why, but i really can’t.

that secret-between-friends-snort-so-hard-that-strangers-stare style of laughter is definitely one of my favorite kinds of laughter. it denotes a shared experience that simply describing cannot convey and makes memories that last.

but at the same time, i must also recognize that communal laughter of a good joke from a pastor on a dreary Sunday morning, the kind that unites everyone who hears it in a sense of community.

laughter really is quite powerful. it can create friendships, destroy relationships, heal illness, and illicit unholy sounds from otherwise rather silent individuals.

Creativity

The quality or ability to create or invent something.

huh.

well that’s nice i guess. but what does it look like?

you say squash.

i see:

you say: jello.

i see:

you say: olives

i see:

and maybe that’s not how you see these random things. but maybe it is. i’d call that creativity.

but when i look around, i try to see and experience everything. the rainbow of colors in a white egg on a white sheet of paper. the music in wind and water.

maybe someone thinks it’s silly or dumb.

but i know, it’s just creativity.

Nature Will Not Bore You

When boredom strikes, great things happen. We all have done things we probably would not have ordinarily had we not been bored. For this reason I think boredom receives a bad rap.

Oddly, when I think of the word boredom my mind is immediately drawn to John Muir. Muir was the forerunner in American conservation and we have him to thank for our National Parks Foundation. He was a bit of and odd bird though. He was often gone for weeks if not months just wandering in the wilderness exploring creation.

I guess I think of him because I feel like he was never bored. He found so much enjoyment in the world that he needed to merely be outside and his mind and intellect exploded into wondrous fascination. He love nature and saw it as his playground so of course he was never bored.

I love this ideal by which Muir lived. We have created so many alternative entertainment tools that we cannot merely enjoy the great outdoors. I find it ironic that the people who claim to be “bored” are really missing facebook, playstation, X- box, their i-pod…hasn’t God given us an enormous amount to enjoy?

I encourage you to get out, enjoy nature. There are definite mental benefits, but also health benefits too. Nature provides an almost endless amount of activities to enjoy it with. So, next time you are bored go for a hike, walk outside, sit outside and read…..ironically I write this as it snows outside my window!

Hide and Seek

Admittedly I find the mask comparison with how we hide ourselves and conform to the world to be incredibly cliche.  I did a mime using this idea with my youth group in 6th grade. Perhaps this is where my frustration with the analogy originates. What 13 year old wants to paint their faces white and parade around playing with masks? Sure I understand the analogy. We, as Christians, use some things to hide amongst the evil that is the world that surrounds us to bring our wounded hearts security. Or, at least I think thats what it means…clearly I am no expert so perhaps some introspection is needed. I find I use confidence as a mask. By that I mean I act confident in situations that I might not necessarily be completely sure of my skills being able to handle. But is that that really a bad thing? I don’t think so. If you do let me know. There are times that I use sarcasm as a mask. If I feel insecure I will create security for myself by being sarcastic towards those around me creating a more positive image of myself in my own mind.

Masks are known for hiding something. I guess I feel like we use the mask analogy as a cop out…I see the significance but I feel it lacks depth. Sure, I probably fit the analogy quite often, but I like to explain it in terms of greater insight.

 

 

There once was a King named Erle.

He was the King of the Kingdom of Boredom

He sat in a chair

And played with his hair

And wasn’t too terribly hansome

The Creative Process

I thank God for the creativity He’s given me. One of my biggest regrets is how I’ve failed to truly live up to this gift. I know people can have a hard time being creative and coming up with ideas, but for me it’s always come naturally. This is not a brag, I can only boast in Christ and His gift to me. Without God’s grace upon me, I would never have an idea worth anything. But He has allowed me to work this way.
The whole reason I want to go into films and writing is because I want to use this gift to the best of my ability and glorify God in the process. I want to use the talents He’s given me and come to Him knowing I didn’t waste His mercy. I hope that someday I’m doing more than just posting a video on Youtube. But, it will only be because God has allowed me to.

Looking through a Child’s eyes

Art. Music. Your job. A sport. Everything you do can be put to creativity. Everybody has a different way of showing their own style. Children are the most creative persons you can find. They imagine a world that adults cannot always see. they build, draw/color, create things out of nothing and who knows where that will lead to. My little cousins love to imagine being on a ship and landing on some land where we see Paul Revere and help him spread the news that the British are coming. Maybe we all should try to go back to being a child again, so we can relook at the world with some new creative ideas.