Essays, Observations & Opinions

Pssst...If You're Bored; Read This...
by David B

To begin transmitting the signal now, simply insert digital processing and image stimulator card into the third implant from the left, conveniently located snugly in the back section of the frontal lobe...have...have...have a nice day...:-)

All my life, I've always thought of things in such a social manner. Societies concern. Societies disdain. Societies belligerent disregard and failure to recognize and uphold an individuals' innate right to a fair trial by one's own self. It is an unspoken and unwritten ban that makes thought a crime and the beast called boredom, a reality. An invisible roadblock on the highway to inner-space and self-realization that feeds from the bottom to the top, nibbling away at the ignorance fueled electronic atmosphere that secretly surrounds us.

Continue to connect the dots, and stop trying to solve this puzzle, rather decipher what it is that this puzzle is trying to tell me, show me. Rearrange my brain, and reshape the scope of influence that a subversive media saturation attack has on an impressionable mind. I know now that Coke and Pepsi are involved in bitter litigation for the rights to advertise in the broadcast of my dreams. I know now that Major League Baseball is reading my mind from space. I know now that it is no accident that over half the population of this country is stricken with some sort of mysterious strain of a flu-like bug. I know now that the information my brain processes day in and day out is only a small part of an enormous and underlying attempt to undermine my soul. Yours too. Human beings are just humans being.

I know now that the sun will rise and set every day, with no help from me or my friends. Constant and unobstructed, a perpetual ritual of which you or I have no control or say. The mountains rise, the ocean roars, the thunder rolls, dogs bark, and I think. I think I know now that the politics of boredom are just that, politics. A thickly veiled guise, behind which human beings sway complacently to the symphony of the master puppeteer.

Orchestrated chaos that in a cause and effect domino universe, creates order. This is Order 101, now please refer to your textbook "manual". Your left, your left, your left, right, left. Forward march. Boredom. Ennui. Boredom.

How in the world in which we "live", how, in a world we cannot control, how has so much control been created? Good question. I don't know the answer. I do know this...The sun shines. The wind blows. The mind wanders. The very fact that the mind wanders renders the definition of boredom mute. Nonexistent really, if you think about it. Boredom is the unfortunate result and manufactured wasteland that a power hungry and control freakish liquid hierarchy has given birth. How then, in an ever changing and evolving universe could a population ever consider the existence of the meaning of the word boredom to in fact be a reality, and incorporate this into their senses and succumb to its false pretense.

How in the world of breathtaking sunsets, coral reefs, skyscrapers, paper sacks twirling almost motionless in a pocket of wind trapped in an alley sandwiched between two skyscrapers...how in this world can their be boredom? How in the world of starry skies, flower petals, microchips, draft beer, Shakespeare, magic mushrooms, wind chimes, music, canyons, the veins in a leaf, museums, waves, barefeet on soft blades of grass...much is required of human beings to live in and grasp the modern world, the lie that is boredom is not such a requirement. Think product of your environment, think student of your environment. Just think. The world that surrounds you, doesn't necessarily surround you. You are experiencing an unguided walking tour of life. You are experiencing it physically as well as subjectively. And everything, that candy bar you're munching on, your beloved remote control and even your thoughts at any given moment are parts of this experience. You are, in essence, in control. Put aside the harmful aspects of the negative media that permeates the air, and sift through the facade that plays before you and think for yourself.

The only real thing in your life must be that you are, and that the world is and always will be. Once you are able to adapt to your surroundings, immediate and beyond, experience life subjectively, from the third person if you will. Once you grip this reality and hold it tight, it will enable you to expand your scope of thought and you will cease looking out for the cure, the solution, and begin to look inward where a world of endless change and infinite circulation make love with chaotic and pure thought.

There is no such thing as boredom. It is make believe. As in something they want to make you believe. Believe in nothing.

Ennui: Directions in Nothingness by Matt Edwards (percussionist for Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) is a brave and thought provoking and, may I add rather psychedelic video short that seemingly deals with....umm, well everything...but, uh, nothing all at once. Edwards presents his case of the struggle for inner clarity in surrealistic and mind bending fashion with a keen and endearing eye for the small yet hauntingly beautiful images in life that may tend to get swept aside. The video almost begs you to stop doing and start being. Stop and smell the roses. Inhale the beauty of your existence, and breathe in the simple and precious fact that you are still able to think at all. Art is itself subjective, and Edwards' video is certainly art with a hidden agenda. Not buried beneath the surface, but actually, seemingly, brimming the surface with innocent imagery.

Matthew Edwards has created something that is not wholly profound, but is really a tool to reach that certain level of profoundness in all our lives. It is not a tour guide to the cosmic reaches of inner space, but it most certainly is a hint, a nudge, a push, a shove in the right direction. The words thought and provoking come circling back to me now. Matthew Edwards is a true artist whose work in question leads nowhere but back to yourself, in your self. Ennui begs to be interpreted and draws one in under such a scenario, but what it really does is capture your attention and your imagination that you use to analyze, and fuses the two together for perhaps one of the strongest bonds known to mankind...an attentive and focused imagination.

Watching this video made me think, and maybe you just read what I thought...maybe not.

But that's just what I think. What do you think? Do you?