We aren’t bored anymore. Something came across my feed this morning that made me stop to ponder. Without phones and the internet at our fingertips, we were forced to find ways to kill time. If we had to wait in line or stop what we were doing we spent that time observing the world or chatting with strangers or just daydreaming. Now we scroll on our phones or put in our headphones.

Boredom is where creativity comes from. We make up stories about strangers walking by, we take in a scene and brainstorm how we’d capture it with film or paint. We hear a repetitive noise and add a melody and lyrics to create a song in our head. When we are bored our brain plays. Our society and circumstances today have removed that opportunity for creativity in our lives. Our brains play less so we innovate less and we create less. We feel less satisfied.

People my age grew up without screens for the most part. In our early childhood we had one television for the whole family and no other opportunity for viewing entertainment. So we made up games and dances and songs and stories. My brother and I still tell stories about our epic dirt-clod wars and croquet-soccer tournaments. We found random things and made something interesting from it.

We are less connected as a society because we are less and less forced into one another’s orbit. When we wait, we put in headphones and scroll. We isolate from one another rather than engage. I went to a plant store yesterday and an 89 year old woman (I later learned) started a conversation about a plant I was looking at. I ended up chatting with Doris for about a half hour about her life being married to an Army officer during Vietnam and living in Bangkok and her career as a mental health counselor and her beloved Sheltie dog that was aging faster than she was. It was a delightful part of my day. And I can’t think of the last time I just chatted with a stranger for a half hour. It made us both a little happier.

I am trying to be on my phone less. I am trying to walk around with my headphones in a little less. I am trying to engage with other people a little more. I am trying to be present in my boredom a little more and see where it takes me. Maybe it won’t be anything earth-shattering, but the thing that’s so great about creative moments is that they make us pleased with ourselves. We’re not making up that story or game for others, we’re making it up inside our own heads to tickle our own sense of humor. Enjoy that, relish that, and create more opportunity for it.

Be bored. See what happens.