Boredom

I have a theory; I think we're all bored.  Now, I know, you've got your Itouch out and you're checking out the latest plot line of Twilight while listening to your favorite Barry Manilow song with one hand while you drive your blue tooth enabled hybrid to hang out wherever it is you hang out.  So how could you possibly be bored?  Right?

I think that our technologically advanced society is, at its heart, bored.  I can see it in the average cubicle dweller.  We sit at our computers....all day long.  Screen after screen of reports, spreadsheets, analysis, etc. is enough to drive any man crazy.  So what do we do?  Listen to the Ipod and sneak a peek at Facebook to see who sent the latest friend request.  We instant message the guy two cubes down from us.  Or, some who border on being Amish, actually walk to a cube near them and talk (does that still happen?) to each other.  Crazy concept I know.

I think it's really because we're bored.  Here's how the theory goes:  God created us to work the land.  That was His original design.  This gave Adam the chance to really pour himself into something.  Even after the fall, Adam and Eve's purpose didn't change much.  It became harder, but it didn't really change.  So they're pouring themselves into their own lives: Adam tends the land trying to provide food.  Eve is working along side Adam and caring for the children as they come.  They don't really have a lot of other distractions.  Their not worried, you see, about who danced the tango last night or who was ripped to shreds for their singing abilities.  They worried about themselves and they created a life of beauty.  That's the key.  They created something together.  It was their focus.

It seems to me that we've lost focus.  We have so many plates spinning in the air, but with no real purpose.  Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone in the world is bored at every moment.  No, I'm talking about American society in general. 

George Orwell said "War is a way of shattering to pieces... materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and... too intelligent."  Although I cannot speak to what he was thinking, the quote seems to indicate that the more comfortable a race is, the more intelligent it becomes.  I'm not so sure that's played itself out.  Though we've come into a place as a nation where we are most comfortable, I don't see vast intelligence breaking forth.  Instead, I see games.  I see things to keep us occupied.  Instead of  groundbreaking intelligence, I see a people who identify themselves with their occupation or hobby and pour themselves into it...because they have nothing else to pour themselves into.  

The point is not that any pursuit of pleasure is bad; the point is that no matter what activities we engage in we should get back to a mindset where we pour ourselves into family and each other.  The framework of our pursuits should fit around those closest to us.  I think that's what God intended.  What do you think?