The Plant’s Boredom
ennui
[ ahn-wee, ahn-wee; French ahn-nwee ]
noun
a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom:
— Dictionary.com
This should not be a boring post…
I’ve been postponing this post for far longer than I should. Maybe I should revisit the procrastination post that started this blog to remind my wisdom taken from plants. After writing the last blog post on the plant’s nationality, I started a draft on the boredom topic. At that time, I started some projects at work with very tight deadlines that seemed to leave no space for boredom. I thought about the draft many times, but I’ve argued myself out of putting the time in writing as time was the scarcest resource.
Now with all these disclaimers out of the way, let’s dive into the topic of ennui, boredom…
What is boredom, and why we hate it?
Boredom is in relation to time. When we don’t have anything on our agenda or our daily tasks list, there is a time that seems out of purpose and prone to get us bored. In today’s world of technology and easy access to distractions, these potential annoying times are filled by a scroll of the news feed on Facebook, watching TV or browsing aimlessly on the internet. But this is not to put everything on technology’s shoulders. Since the very beginnings, the people found ways of filling up the time besides the many chores they had to complete during the day.
Boredom is also associated with a negative state of being that needs to be addressed. One does not want to find himself in a state of ‘nothing to do’ and no prospects of engaging in anything that would distract how bored he feels. We don’t want to get bored and consciously or unconsciously we are looking for ways to engage in anything that would keep us not feeling that way. That does not mean that we will be active, only feel like we are not bored. That is enough to satisfy our fear of boredom.
However, we are still flooded by a feeling of dissatisfaction and restlessness, even if we emerged ourselves into the available distractions.
I will write a separate post on time, as I think about it a lot through the lens of the plants, but it’s impossible not to mention it here.
Everybody is complaining about the lack of time. No matter the occupation, family or place, everyone complains of the little time available. Time is also used as an excuse for not engaging in things that otherwise would satisfy us.
This is the most frequent quote: I would really love to start that, but I don’t find the time now…
So, when you feel bored, it seems that a window opened in the busy of the day. Therefore, boredom should, in theory, be welcomed and the now available time slot could be filled by activity too much postponed — something like writing this post. But boredom also comes with a feeling of impotence in engaging in anything. Instead of taking an active role in designing the day, we would instead take the role of a spectator; meaningless, slowly and dissatisfied watching the day pass.
The biggest issue with the boredom is the after-effect. Once that time passed, a feeling of regret and missed opportunity inundate our bodies and self-hate and pity arise. We lost that time. I think that is the fact that turns this aimless non-active period into such a negative personality trait.
Although of all the negative aspects of ennui, some researchers claim that boredom paved the developmental path [1]. Through the invention of tools and fire, the humans became more efficient with their time and the extra time was filled with other activities that were nor related to survival. Hence more creativity was used as a means to fill up the time.
Are plants bored..all the time?
As this blog proposes, every human individual or common trait is analysed through the lenses of the plants. When it comes to boredom, it is easy to say that the plants are probably one of the most bored organisms on the Planet. Firstly, they can not move or engage in other activities outside their survival.
I think that there is more to this story than superficial analysis. I think the plants appreciate the stillness that would make us jump on the phone and create an inside panic alarm in our heads. To be bored is to be alive and healthy and have no worries. Many say that our past generations had not to time for boredom because they were too busy to survive. Even if this is an over dramatised statement, it holds some truth about the plants.
The full story can be found here: https://www.phytosopher.com/blog/the-plants-boredom
Phytosophy is an anthology of thought experiments that explore the intrinsic human condition through the lenses of the plants.Are plants courageous, lazy, or humble? Do they procrastinate, cheat or sacrifice? What lessons can we learn from the nature in order to make our lives more meaningful?
