WE MUST BE ENTERTAINED

 

These are hard times, and for the most part we are not prepared for them.   Technology has made us soft and dependent.   Our cars start with an electronic key; Alexa takes care of turning off our lights, adjusting the heat in our house, changing our TV channels and guaranteeing our security.   And, we are constantly entertained.

 

A deadly virus, a plague, has attacked our species and we are in denial.   Our leaders prefer to call it a pandemic, a much nicer word than plague.  We are told not to worry; a cure is on the way.   Unfortunately, no one told the virus.

 

The poor buggers that have to get out and go to work and risk infection – even worse the people who now have no jobs and can’t pay for rent, heat or food, all suffer a devastating double whammy that stresses the limit of human endurance, while the stock market reaches new heights.  

 

The rest of us sit around and complain that the schools aren’t open to take over our responsibility of parenting, or that we can’t get together with friends, that we can’t eat out, we can’t go to the bars, we can’t go to the gym: that we are bored.   

 

“The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom.  A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do.   A sense that we are not amused.” 

Michael Crichton from Timeline.  

 

In 1665, shortly after graduating from Trinity College, 23-year-old Isaac Newton, to escape the Great Plague of London, went into seclusion at his family farm.  During his time in isolation, he invented Calculus, studied light refraction and proposed the Law of Universal Gravitation.

 

So, buck up little buckaroo; if you are bored you are fortunate.   Get off your privileged ass and entertain yourself.   Do something Constructive.

 

 Binge watching TV and posting on Face Book how uninteresting your life has become is not productive and is not healthy.

 

Read: you might start with Michael Crichton.  Expand your horizons with Master Classes, learn to read and write poetry, publish letters to the editor in your local paper, try to publish an article or begin writing a book.  If you are not good at math, pick up a general math or introduction to algebra workbook and expand your knowledge; take a college course on line – learn to paint or sculpture – begin an exercise routine…

 

I just signed up for Master Classes – there is a world of interesting topics being discussed – you might want to check out the link.

the Ol’Buzzard