Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 212
“The question is not where is the event and what is the surprise, but how to see through the sham of routine, how to refute the falsehood of familiarity. Boredom is a spiritual disease, infectious and deadening, but curable.”(Who is Man pg. 115)
Boredom is curable, it is curable through the same dedication to spiritual exercises as is needed in our physical exercise routines. Just as with our physical exercise routines, we must continually change, update, add ‘weight’ to and have a daily/weekly routine we engage in. While some may say “I am not spiritual” and need to see this as mental/psychological/emotional exercises, so be it. Rabbi Heschel’s entire body of works is dedicated to ideas, pathways and actions helping us grow our inner life, grow our spirits, grow our emotional, psychological and intellectual living. It begins with being in the moment, as I wrote on Friday, and continues with appreciation. It is a given that being present is the foundation of not being bored and many people are practicing being present, appreciation for this moment is not always a given. Even people who say: “same shit, different day” can say they are in the moment and it is ‘shit’.
Appreciate is defined as “realizing the full worth of” and comes from the Latin meaning “to price”. Boredom ends and is defeated when we realize the “full worth of” this moment, when we realize the “price” this moment has on it and the worth of being present, the joy of realizing this moment only comes once and is fleeting, yet full of power, full of meaning and we can be loyal to it, remember it and use it to enhance the next. Appreciation is a key to curing our boredom, I believe. Yet, we live in a fog which prevents us from a true appraisal of this moment for what it truly is. We get so much outside noise regarding what isn’t worth it, who isn’t worth it, and these erroneous appraisals have ruined our ability to be in this moment, to reevaluate what is and to appraise it for ourselves. Th bombardment of the outside noise of social media rants, mendacity from the charlatans who proclaim themselves the TRUE believers, prophets and adherers to god’s will, from family hierarchy, from the lies we tell ourselves and our immature inner life, etc, cause us to have a misappraisal of this moment and every other moment. Hence, boredom sets in when we allow these half-truths (remember every great lie has a kernel of truth in it), this noise, our need to be accepted and belong, our fears and our “adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches” as Rabbi Heschel teaches in Man is Not Alone, to overwhelm us and envelope us in the fog, the slavery, the self-deception of boredom.
We cure it through changing our way of being 2%, as Rabbi Jonathan Omer-man taught me back in 1989. He reminded a class Harriet and I were taking with him that the shift from this to that is only a 2%shift. At any given moment we are 49% willing to appreciate this moment for what it is, for the possibilities it has, and if we shift our perceptions, our focus, our investigations 2%, we will be 51% in appreciation and 49% in (possible) boredom, anxiety, etc. We can make this shift a lot more easily that most people realize. Going back to the exercise model, when we go to the gym for the first time, we are not expecting to have six-pack abs immediately, or even at the 100th day. Because we know so much goes into our exercise routine, so much goes in to our changing of habits, the choices we make, the attention we give to our routine, our rest, our food choices, etc. We know we cannot approach our workouts with a routine attitude and get the results we are seeking, we put a high price on how our exercise is going to help our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual heath so we keep moving the needle one grain of sand each day.
The same is true with our spiritual exercise, we can’t become a spiritual giant in a day, we won’t ever be 100% spiritual being until we die, so to begin to release ourselves from the prison of boredom and the slavery of “the sham of routine”, “the falsehood of familiarity”, we must being with the acceptance of the 2% shift which can happen in a shorter or longer period of time depending on “the price” we set for spiritual health, for not living in boredom, and for adding to and belonging to a community of people engaging in being human. This 2% shift is not easy, I am not suggesting it is, yet it is doable, it is achievable, it is worth it. People who have left boredom, people who have made this shift, have a light in their eyes that is difficult to ignore, they have a spirit that infuses each moment and each idea with energy, they believe in the power of we and they know that me is an important component of we. We all need to make this 2% shift in every area of our lives, one of the lies we tell ourselves is that we only need to be spiritual in church, synagogue, mosque, and the truth is we have to walk in the ways of spirit, of being human in all areas of our life, we have to appreciate, reappraise, set the correct price on our relationships, our covenants with people and on the truth so we do not fall back into the boring routines and familiarities we are leaving.
My recovery is based on the 2% shift I learned so many years ago. I have made it and I have stayed with it. I am aware of the times I have fell back into boredom and I am aware of how quickly I have left them (quick in relation to how long it took me the first time). I am also aware of the price I have set on joy, being present, letting go of resentments and letting go of needing people to agree with my vision and experience. These are the exercises I engage in every day to grow my spirit, to be better at being human each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark