What is boring?

by Jon Sullivan - 2022-01-17 - Jonism

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

---

I made cream of mushroom soup for lunch a few days ago. How boring.

The cream of mushroom soup of my youth was really awful. Not the sort of awful that comes from tasting bad, but more the awful that comes from being so boring it's almost inedible. It's bland, overly salty gravy more than soup. It was only later I learned you didn't just eat their soup as soup. You made casseroles or meatloaf with it. Still boring, but when you are broke and potatoes are cheap a bit of canned mushroom gravy certainly helps.

Thankfully the 2022 Jon version of the soup wasn't boring. Slowly browned mushrooms and onions, some jalapeno, some sausage, some olive oil. I would describe it as crazy good. Is that still boring? Spending my golden years making soup and thinking of it as crazy good? I could be making some exciting Birria tacos with consomme. Steak, mushroom, onion and gruyere pie? Mango and ginger cupcakes? Oh well.... I made mushroom soup.

As I get older I worry about being boring in retirement. I can see myself retiring (still years away) and then sitting at home playing video games and eating soup. Boring.

Although as I've been thinking about it I find it pretty hard to get upset about retiring to just play video games. Travel would be awesome. So many things still to photograph. Exploring new restaurants. Finding new cities to love. New hobbies like 3D modeling or finally learning to play guitar properly. But..... video games. Always video games.

Perhaps it would be better to think about boring vs bored. I certainly won't be bored. Far from it. Sitting alone in my little hidey hole, never seeing anyone or going outside. That's boring, but of course I don't care that it is, because I wouldn't be bored.

So maybe the critical conundrum is boring vs lazy. But if you are old and retired, is lazy even a thing? Seems like it would be an earned reward more than a character flaw.

And there we have it I guess. I'm boring and lazy, as I should be.

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

---