Boredom

When trying to put into words our experience here I sometimes - somewhat frustratingly - find my observations reduced to clichés. Something that I´ve heard a million times before but now, beyond merely accepting the idea of some cliché or another, I find myself gaining a deeper understanding through living it. One example is the importance of boredom in the creative process, a concept that I´ve always accepted but now observe regularly around me. Boredom should not be confused with its opposite; numbness from over-saturation of cheap entertainment, although the symptoms can be similar.

Þorri sometimes exhibits restlessness if there is not enough going on but, given the chance to figure it out himself, in the end he usually thinks of something interesting to do or discovers something new inside his head. A few days ago, after several restless circles around the table where I, Flóki and Þórdís were all working, not knowing what to do with himself he kept commenting on everyone else´s work and asking for advice on what to do. Not getting any help from us he soon went off and did his own thing. A bit later he returned, super excited, demonstrating his discovery; that he could extract a deep purple color from a small red flower growing in our garden. From this he logically proceeded to paint war-stripes on his cheeks with the flower, spending the next hour or two as an Aztec Indian.