Mark Kingwell:
“bus windows: the ultimate philosophy school” (!i)Boredom is an ineradicable part of everydayness, and world-weariness a fact of life. The poet John Berryman wrote: “Life, friends, is boring / We must not say so.” But actually, we must say so. Langeweile has much to teach us about existence, meaning, consciousness, and action. When you are forced to confront your boredom – really confront its lessons, about desire and selfhood – the world stands out more vividly, even if time itself crawls spider-slow. All the more so when philosophizing arises from boredom, our cruel-to-be-kind teacher.
If you are lucky enough to feel bored right now, and are not simply scrambling to make ends meet or stay alive, do not give way to melancholy or flee into flashy new stimulus. Look out the bus window, which is itself a window on the soul. Embrace the burdens of your being in the world. You cannot escape from yourself, but you can examine the conditions of your own possibility.