Sometime in the early 2000s, I stopped being bored. Boy Scout meetings, piano recitals, Taekwondo practices, housework done in a Saudi apartment preparation for a supposedly harsher life in Wild America. I remember staring at walls and ceilings as a kid, willing images to life in my head and crying of boredom when I ran out of books to read or pictures to draw inventions on.

I was bored yesterday and lay with my head back on the couch letting the sun set and darken the room. Nothing came of it of course. That’s kind of the point isn’t it? To simply witness the world turn without expecting your boredom to produce some sort of masterpiece like the Harvard Business Review articles predict it would.

When was the last time you felt boredom? The last time you felt an itch to do something but had nothing that would put a rest to the restlessness?

If you’re privileged enough to risk boredom, try it. Stare at a blank wall, the sky, or a solitary leaf until your brain produces its own hallucinogens and the clouds become a pod of whales going nowhere.

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Currently Re-reading: Jenny Odell’s wandering, bookish, but timely call to “do nothing” and Jia Tolentino’s related and nuanced take on the calls to “put your phone away”.

Currently Jamming: Coconut Radio Amsterdam

Currently Cooking: Stuffed Eggplants via Chef Sameh Wadi’s “The New Mediterranean Table” cookbook.