The Last Day of the Year
In defence of boredom...
Today is the last day of the year. Every year you live in its entirety is its own blessing. That is worth remembering. During this festive month, I have not travelled. It has brought out a craving for quiet, and I’m glad for it.
This morning, I woke early, curiously refreshed. I gathered my things and hopped down to the cafe but it was closed. A brisk walk followed through Berlin’s empty streets, still underpopulated after the Christmas exodus. It evoked a less crowded world, and for a time, the streets were mine alone.
All the cafes were closed, so I headed home, put on the stovetop and made myself a strong Americano. Its taste was bitter but sparked me into life. I like my morning coffee that way — free of ornament. The first task of the day is to face the gentle austerity of the world. To sweeten it is to trick yourself.
Immediately after waking, there is a time when happiness or sadness is inconsequential. This is the short space where you are unfilled. It is worth listening to. It’s a time when you can hear yourself. When the self beneath the self stirs, as if the line that separates us from our ancestral subconscious fades.
Modern life, with its up-and-at-it bent, fills this space. What an illusory state; to cram out your own listening.
This time, during which you hear yourself and the world, is precious.
It is a paradox that we choose to suffocate it with productivity.
Productivity accelerates time.
Be careful, or you will miss your life.
If there is one thing I’ve learned, it is that life happens in the noticing itself.
We live in an age of amnesia. The Tyrannical Now eats up our own memory before it has even had the chance to form.
That is why the devil lives in distraction. It is not distraction of itself that is the problem — in fact, distraction can be joyous and creative when it is a decision. No, the danger is what distraction is doing to us. Even its definition is flawed — to be distracted — should not be a passive verb. Distraction is the state of living in a prolonged form of mental suicide. What is killed off is your capacity to ever listen to yourself. That is why we are afraid of boredom; what if we don’t like what we hear?
If you want to improve yourself and your life in 2025, the boldest choice would be to make space for boredom.
In it, you might just meet yourself.
What will you find there?