Hawk's Cry

On Boredom

Our society is fascinated, even obsessed, with boredom. In school, teachers do all they can to make learning more fun. At work, people steal moments here and there regularly to entertain themselves. Prior to the web, they did this at the water cooler. Now, the water cooler has gone online and they play social games, keep tabs on the news, or on their stock portfolio. When they get home, both kids and adults fight boredom with great intensity most commonly by watching endless hours of television or on the web.

But what exactly is boredom? I won’t bore you with the Wikipedia entry on boredom, but instead I’ll try to take a different angle. They way I have come to define boredom is a task that is not necessarily tedious, but instead meaningless. It is this meaninglessness in the task that makes one bored, instead of the task itself. This is why boredom is just one step away from apathy.

For example, I used to feel when I was a kid that mowing the lawn was very boring. I did all I could to put it off or shirk the chore onto my sister as much as I could. When I couldn’t avoid it any longer, I suffered through it with a strong sense of drudgery. Now that I am older and live in my own house, I feel differently about mowing the lawn. I still feel the job is quite tedious and I don’t look forward to it, but I do not find it boring anymore. The difference between then and now is the sense of meaning and purpose in the task.

When I was a kid, I mowed the lawn purely because my parents told me to do it. I had no real connection to it and I saw it as only benefiting them. Now that it is my own lawn, I see it as a reflection of myself in the community. It demonstrates to the community that I work to maintain it and keep it nice looking for all. If I don’t mow the lawn and it gets too long, I feel that I’m not keeping myself up for the benefit of the neighbors and other community members. There is a purpose on the tedious job now.

I’ll give another example, that of my eldest son, the Warrior. He has trouble in school and frequently complains about it being boring. When we lived in California, I thought he was bored because the work was not challenging enough. The pace of the lessons was too slow and there was a lot more repetition than he needed. When we moved to Minnesota, the pace was a lot faster and he had to catch up. Since he is very intelligent, he caught up with the rest of the class rather quickly. But he still complained about it being boring. Now that he is in the second grade and has been in his multi-age class (where first and second graders are combined into a single classroom), he is in the groove of things at school, and still says it is boring. He has trouble staying focused and getting his homework done, even with help.

So I thought about his boredom in terms of meaning. From talking with and observing him, I’ve come to the conclusion that he does not see the relevance of the lessons to him. He does not see any purpose in learning the material being taught. When he gets frustrated at having to finish an assignment, he complains, “It doesn’t matter.”

A few years ago, I posted about the growing sense of meaninglessness in our society. In our social quest for material accumulation (described as “growth”), we have lost our connection with the larger universe. We have lost the purpose in our life as we have come to believe since the Industrial Revolution that we need to be focused on the material and that there is no larger purpose. Why else do we spend so much of our precious time focusing on empty and superficial activities, such as watching television or randomly surfing the web?

I do not claim to be above television and web surfing, but I try to limit it to shows and activities I find specifically enjoyable. I will record specific shows that I’m interested in on TV (thank the Gods for inspiring the inventor of the DVR!) instead of simply putting on a channel and watching what’s on or surfing the channels in the off-chance that I will like something. When I don’t watch a pre-recorded show I like, I prefer to turn off the TV and read articles from online authors I enjoy (like Gary North) and offline books I like.

Though I am not immune to being bored at times, the way I have learned to get past it is to either change tasks to something that has meaning, or working to find meaning and purpose in the task at hand. When you’re bored at work, for example, try to think about how your work helps your employer. Remember, especially in these times of rapid change, that if your employer can’t make a profit, you can’t get paid. If you find no meaning in the work of your employer, then you need to work on finding a new employer (or even a new career). You are not acting according to your Will, so take a step back and evaluate your will and what you can do to live by it.

If you don’t understand your Will enough to follow it yet, take time away from a boring task at home, like channel surfing, and work on discovering it. If your boredom is coming from your job, look at the relationship between your calling and your occupation.

Remember that many tasks that are in accordance to your Will are tedious and require discipline to complete. But they have meaning to you because they advance your Great Work and are therefore not boring. Do your activities that have meaning and consciously do them with discipline, and you will find your life becoming less and less boring.

Quest for Good Wiccan/Pagan Children’s Books

I was looking for books for Wiccan and Pagan kids for our children. It’s one thing to learn about something from one’s parents, but reading about it from others can help reinforce what is being taught. I haven’t looked to see what books are out there in a while, so I didn’t quite know what to expect.

The good news is that there are definitely more choices available for Wiccan books for kids. The bad news is that many of the books are not very well written, or are written for children who were previously learning Christianity. Our kids were never Christian and are not steeped in Christian mythology and morals. They were raised from birth in a Wiccan home. This rules out the old standbys that I learned Wicca from originally, such as Silver Ravenwolf.

We decided to try out a couple of books that looked interesting. One such book is the new book An Ordinary Girl – A Magical Child by W. Lyon Martin. It is a fun book that has a lot of good watercolor pictures and describes seven-year-old Wiccan girl who is raised in a Pagan household. Though it has a few factual errors (such as describing Diana as a Greek deity), the writing style is age-appropriate and has an openness to it that allows for the wide variation found in Wiccan practices. It also discusses how Rabbit learned to handle some difficulties such as being teased for not being Christian at school and banishing bad dreams. Overall, we found this book to be worthwhile and our kids enjoy it too.

Another book we ordered for our kids to use is A Witch’s Primer: Grade One by Lorin Manderly. Some of the reviews questioned this book being for first graders, and the reading level is definitely above that. There are no pictures, so it is more of a book for an older child or for a parent to read to the child. It is a good overview of a wide variety of Wiccan topics, ranging from the Wheel of the Year, the Gods and Goddesses of a few pantheons, talismans, magical alphabets, and many others. Some people think that these topics are too advanced for that age group, but the way I see it, kids can handle more advanced ideas than many adults think. They may not become fluent in Theban writing at the age of seven, but our second grade boy (the Warrior) loves secret codes. This book does not go into detail about any topic, but has a great smattering of a wide variety of topics that define Wicca. It is not intended to replace the parents (for example, A Witch’s Primer does not talk much about the Rede, leaving that for the parents), but it is a good way to get ideas for religious teaching. I look forward for the Grade Two book, when it comes out.

Though neither of these books is without faults, I recommend both of them for parents who wish to use books to add to their kids Wiccan education.

As more Wiccans who were initially called to the Craft in the late 90s and early 2000s have children of their own and want to give their kids a religious foundation, I’m sure more books like these will be written and published. I look forward to it.

The Death of Working Dishwasher Detergent (and what you can do about it)

I know this will rub many Pagans and Wiccans the wrong way, but I was dismayed to learn about why it seems that today’s automatic dishwasher detergents don’t really clean dishes. Not that long ago, you could put dishes in the dishwasher and have reasonable expectations that your dishes would come out, well, clean enough to eat off of.

The reason is because the dishwasher detergent makers all quietly changed their formulae to remove phosphorus because of a government ban in 17 states. Many environmentalists rejoice at this, but even though I worship the earth and the nature gods, I’m not the kind of Wiccan who thinks that all American should be forced to live with unsanitary, dirty dishes. We are part of this earth and need to respect it and all creatures, but we need to respect ourselves and live according to our will.

Phosphorus is an important element in automatic dishwasher detergent. It significantly helps bind the dirt and grime to the soap and keeps it from re-sticking back on the dishes. It also keeps the dirt from sticking to the various parts of the dishwasher. In a nutshell, it is what makes it so you don’t have to scrape your dishes clean before putting them in the dishwasher.

Don’t get me wrong, if you wish to use non-phosphate automatic dishwasher detergent, that should be your choice. But the government should not be requiring that you do it. If there is a market for both choices (and I think there is), the manufacturers should be allowed to make both options and let the customers decide for themselves which they prefer.

Instead, millions of Americans in areas that don’t have phosphate contamination problems are forced to use inferior detergent and are resorting to other methods of cleaning that may cause more environmental harm. For example, many are handwashing their dishes which uses many, many times more water than the 6-8 gallons a modern dishwasher will use for a whole load. Others are running the dishwasher twice to get them clean, which doubles all of the energy and water used. So it’s a trade-off between some phosphate use vs. significantly increased water and energy use. Energy production is not without its harmful pollutants, and in some of America’s largest cities, water is quite scarce.

So, other than complaining to the governments that banned phosphates in dishwasher detergent that they are overstepping their bounds on micromanaging Americans’ lives and taking away choices that people should be able to make themselves, according to their will, what can you do about this?

You can make your own detergent very simply, cheaper, and it will actually get your dishes clean. Simply mix equal parts of borax (20 Mule Team brand works great) and baking soda and use it in your automatic dishwasher as you would regular detergent. If you have a problem with spots, simply put white vinegar in place of rinsing agent. It is an all-natural way to get your dishes cleaner, and it is cheaper than the commercial detergents that don’t work anymore.

I suggest cleaning your dishwasher first, though, to get rid of any gunk and build-up from your old detergent. You can do this with baking soda and white vinegar.

Then, after your dishwasher is clean you can use your all-natural homemade dishwasher detergent. Here is a demo of how you can make it.