These Are My JOTtings...

The Virtue of Being a Boring Person

Some of us are considered by today's world to be boring.
By inference "boring" has a negative connotation.
In the world that values excitement,
"boring" does not even register on the meter.

However, there is something to be said
for the deleterious effects of constant excitement.
Greater and greater levels of excitement are required in a nearly constant increase
in order to achieve yesterday's adrenaline fix.
Over time the body and the mind begin to break down
from the overexertion of excitement.

My life tends to be rather boring
by the standards of contemporary Society.
I wake,
I eat.
I drink my morning coffee.
I dress for the day,
parting my hair on the left, while combing it over to the right side.
(Not always in that order,)
I do the dishes,
and other important household chores,
like feeding one Australian Shepherd,
four cats,
two hens,
and walking the dog about in the yard to sniff and enjoy other important pleasantries.

With a fourteen-year-old aspiring writer, who graces our daily home with her wonderful smile,
Papa is still the young lady's chauffeur to...
drum lessons,
theater classes,
play rehearsals,
literary field trips to BAM
and creative fact-finding missions to Hobby Lobby.

As a husband and father,
who is careful to perform helpful family errands,
I have become increasingly skilled...
at navigating the aisles of the grocery stores,
(except after the quarterly refit, which intentionally keeps everyone guessing,)
at wading through the morass of minutiae in Wal-Mart, K-Mart and other department stores
that allegedly cost less monetarily, while definitely costing more in time and blood, sweat & tears, and...
at going to the latest movies in order to be knowledgeable...
about the most recent hero from the mind of Stan Lee,
the current status of the Jedi & the Force,
which awakens every so often,
making it less adroit than Santa Claus,
who "knows when you've been sleeping and knows, when you're awake."

Have any parts in your play for a slightly boring, somewhat overweight,
middle-aged guy, who is learning to enjoy "being furniture" on stage?
Then, I'm your Go-To Guy.
I'll slip into my acting "uniform" of...
white dress shirt,
black dress pants,
black tie, and...
patent leather shoes,
which cost $300 about fifteen years ago, so I think I've gotten my money out of them by now.
My resumé shows experience in being...
a TV station manager,
a dentist,
Matthew, the Gospel writer,
a house servant for Daddy Warbucks,
a Cabinet member for FDR,
a second tenor member of the School Board in The Music Man,
Papa in a play that is called, I Remember Mama,
O. Henry in The Gift of the Magi,
the Professor in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe,
the newspaper editor in Our Town and, now,...
I am assaying to be yon ship's captain in The Tempest by Shakespeare.

Not really all that exciting,
I play the parts that basically "hold down the fort,"
kind of like in real life.
I'm type-cast as the figurehead, who keeps life on an even keel,
not very exciting,
but very necessary.

Bones are all that flashy in the body,
but in their absence we would all become jelly fish,
which isn't too bad of a gig,
if you live in the ocean,
However, living that life on land is no doubt rather unpleasant,
just ask anyone in a cast or...
who has experienced paralysis for any length of time.

Bones tend to be rather boring,
but very important members of the physical body.
Boring people are often the bones
of the family,
of Society,
of churches,
of various community groups, etc.

Being boring really is virtuous,
when it goes with the job description.

I mean everybody can't be the exciting,
mega-millions of dollars earners,
the likes of Hugh Jackman,
Johnny Depp,
Owen Wilson,
Helen Mirren,
Sandra Bullock,
Daisy Ridley and myriad others,
but we can be...
faithful keepers-at-home,
diligent workers-at-the-office,
salt of the Earth,...
in other words...
people, who keep Society moving.

Thank you to all the "boring" people,
like school teachers,
law enforcement officers and support personnel,
workers at homeless missions,
librarians,
doctors,
ministers,
all the souls, who do what they do for the love of others,
even when their pay is not commensurate with their worth.

The recent visit from Saint Nicholas brings up an important point.
The fact that we admire this fictionalized version
of one of HIStory's great philanthropists
says something about the values that we humans hold dearest to our hearts.
Taking care of others may appear to be rather boring on the surface,
but very necessary and valued at the core.

Excitement is a bit like salt on the one hand and honey on the other.
Both tend to bring out the flavor of life,
but too much is bad to the taste and potentially bad for the health.

Boring is like water on the one hand and air on the other.
We can't live without either,
but the only way either can get into the excitement of the movies
is as the culprit in disaster films
the likes of The Poseidon Adventure and Twister.

Boring is a virtue, when it is part of the job description.

A boring person may fail badly by trying to be exciting,
when that is not his or her giftedness,
A boring person is well-loved,
when he or she is just being themselves.

"Daddy, don't try to act like me and my friends.
Just be yourself."
"Will do. Point well taken."

by Jay O'Toole
on January 6th, 2017