Odes to Boredom: Because it's August?

This past week, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal ran articles extolling the virtues of boredom. In the Times, Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon, revisits a lifetime of boredom, including interminable corporate meetings, before Dilbert. Adams lauds his good fortune to have been bored so often, "I've noticed that my best ideas bubble up when the outside world fails in its primary job of freightening, wounding or entertaining me."

He fears for contemporary society because  iPads, iPods and iPhones mean that we can always avoid boredom. Lack of innovation and creativity will follow with dire consequences for society and the economy.

In the Journal, Peter Toohey, a professor of Greek and Roman studies and the author of "Boredom: A Lively History," explains that boredom has a long history. He cites a third century Roman plaque erected by citizens who honored a consul of Campania because he had saved them from "endless boredom." Better not to dwell too much on how he entertained them. (iDevices may have their uses.) For us, Toohey finds boredom useful as a warning that life is not being properly lived and thus needs to be changed before the dire consequences, possibly violence or illness, ensue. As such, he also finds boredom to be a spur to creativity.

Ah, so be thankful for suffocating weather, vacationing friends,  August suspension of meetings, interminable repeats of the same story on TV news and  panels of experts repeating that same news.  If all else fails, watch the grass turn brown until your creative juices stir. But beware of  iDevices!