On Boredom

It is a terrible thing to be bored, if only because there is so much to do in life. Plus, when you're bored, you can't help but think of those smart alec-y catty things your mother said to you when as a child, you announced you were bored - that being bored is a personal problem, or that you were just bored because you lacked creativity, and surely you could find something to do if you went outside (and quit bothering your mother) or that only boring people were bored.
          (It's funny to me that mothers say such things then wonder why their children grow up to be smart alec-y and catty.)
         
           Nonetheless, over the weekend, we were tying to figure out what to do, and we realized we were bored, and that we were bored with Bali. Not that Bali isn't nice; all of it is beautiful, and we've seen a lot of it. We've seen temple after temple after temple, we've seen the museums - all of them - in Ubud, we've hiked Mt. Batur and walked through the Monkey Forest, we've done the walks through the rice fields. I've crossed streams by hanging from a tree with my toddler strapped to my back,  we've downhill cycled,  and I've cycled up hill. We've driven to the coast to see a temple. We drove to the opposite coast to see another temple. We've visited neighboring islands and gone snorkeling. We've seen Barong dance, Kecka Fire dance, and Balinese dance lessons; we've witnessed Cremation Ceremonies, and good luck ceremonies, seen the cremation processions, Galangan processions,  and the processions where we have no idea why people are proceeding.

        So we did what you do when you're bored; we decided to see what our friends were doing and if it was something that would entertain us as well. They were thinking of seeing another temple. I told Kent that with all the temples, I felt like a Religious Art History student in Rome, where if I saw another painting of Jesus, I would nail myself to the cross. But Kent replied, "We're bored, so any opportunity to buy a sarong and a Bintang tank top is exciting!"
         They responded that they were now unsure of the temple plan. Kent told them that we were so bored, we'd go to the petrol station with them. He suggested that we could all sneak into the Monkey Forest and count the fat tourists wearing too small shorts.
 
       We discussed that our main issue is that we have a toddler, that if we didn't have a toddler, essentially this limbo time of being in Bali until our departure date would be like a Balinese writer's colony where we would just write and read and write. On Friday, we ran into a friend of ours who is moving back to Scotland with her husband and five year old daughter. With her, we talked about the things we're looking forward to getting back to, the things you can do with your child in a city. I especially miss taking my son to free story hour at the public library, or puppet shows or other stage productions at the Children's Museum, or having picnics at jazz in the park, or exhibits at the science museum where my son could bang on other people's property.

        I do think some degree of boredom is good in life, that generally in transitions from one project or phase to another, it can be helpful to allow yourself to get bored, that after boredom comes the stage where you realize what you miss, or what you really want to do with your time.

       With our boredom, we realized that while Bali is beautiful, we are ready to go home. We don't have a home, but thanks to our time in Bali, we have realized that Bali or the tropics are not it. So really, it's not so much that we're bored; we're just ready to continue our search for the perfect place.