"Not all those who Wander are lost." This phrase by Tolkien might be his most popular, but in our increasingly digital world, our ability to wander is being lost. Of course, one can still wander about town or their nation, but true wandering, I believe, involves some quality of the unknown. With modern GPS, travel blogs, and all those YouTube vacation accounts, one has to purposely avoid all the modern "advancements" that have been made to traveling.
But there is another kind of wandering still available to us. Each of us has this gift, and yet we spend so much time and energy running away from it, as if it were some invisible specter in perpetual pursuit. The specter’s name is Boredom. But let’s see if this specter is a fairy in disguise.
In our modern digital society, we are all building to burnout by constantly consuming content. “Excessive positivity and overproduction are creating new forms of suffering.” to Quote Korean born philosopher Byung Chul Han one of these new forms of suffering I believe, is the pervasive and insidious anxiety born from the relentless need to escape boredom, which is increasingly disguised as a fear of unproductivity and a compulsive drive to remain perpetually engaged. How many of us leave a headphone in when going about the day? How many people do we know that leave music on their Alexa or google device even when they leave home so that their return is accompanied by fanfare? It is as if we lived in some horror film where music prevents the Monster from finding us.
Music is everywhere. As Sir Roger Scruton said, "In almost every public place today the ears are assailed by the sound of pop music in shopping malls, public houses, restaurants, hotels, and elevators. The ambient sound is not a human conversation but the music disgorged into the air by speakers, usually invisible and inaccessible speakers that cannot be punished for their impertinence." Now, dear reader, I am not making an anti-music argument. I am not a Puritan; I believe their views are not only wrong but evil in so far as they reject the goodness of creation. But when music permeates every moment of life, we are left consuming and reacting, our minds never truly at rest. If our bodies need sleep in order to recharge and reset, then what is the effect of this constant consuming and reflecting? It is a mind that is never truly at rest. Boredom is to the mind what sleep is to the body.
But it is not just music that happens to be playing as we go about our day. Whether it be thoughts of work, plans for the weekend, a podcast, or leaving some TV show on in the background as we go about our daily tasks, even friendship can be a part of this system of consumption. Where we text, call, or check the Group chat hoping our friends have said something that Keeps that specter off our back. In the digital age, even friendship can be turned into just another piece of content we consume.
we all run from this specter of boredom. Many people today even pride themselves on their constant consumption with some faux "edge’’ saying, "Oh, I can’t be alone with my thoughts. It gets dark." Are we, as citizens of the digital age, so weak that we can’t control, let alone confront, our own minds? Chesterton said “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed” how far have we fallen from the Children of Chesterton’s time if we not only fail to believe in dragons we are to scared to confront them. A remedy to this modern plight may be found in the life of G.K. Chesterton and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.
G.K. Chesterton’s Absent Mind and Tolkien’s Fairy Land
The great G.K. Chesterton was notoriously "absent-minded," He once stopped in the middle of a busy street to contemplate an argument. but to him, absent-mindedness doesn't mean one’s mind is absent but merely present elsewhere. Another time, Chesterton famously sent a telegram to his wife from a distant location saying, "Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" This whimsical mix-up highlighted his tendency to lose himself in thought, oblivious to his surroundings and even his intended destinations. Chesterton allowed his mind to wander, to be whisked away. If the expression "I had a thought but the train left the station" holds any truth, then Chesterton often took the train not knowing the destination
To Tolkien, this experience of the mind floating along its own path would be akin to entering a fairy story, where one steps beyond the ordinary world into a realm of enchantment and wonder, finding deeper truths and unexpected adventures in the realms of imagination. This practice of mental wandering came naturally to these two great men. In their time, it was easier because they did not have the many distractions we suffer from in the digital age. What came naturally to them, we must actively seek out. We must shun the many flashing pixels in favor of dancing pixies.
Now do not interpret this call for mental wandering and absent-mindedness as a call for some new-age practice of Mindfulness or some other cringe activity. If you believe you can sit down crosslegged with your eyes closed and through force of will break into Fairyland you may find something far more dangerous than faires waiting on the other side. I can’t tell you how best to get into that enchanting world for each mind must find its own path. But I can give you some tips that may be of use. If you find yourself bored after completing a task instead of running from that Specter look out a window, or perhaps gaze upon a painting you enjoy, for me, it is La Belle Dame sans Merc (The Beautiful Lady without pity) by John William Waterhouse. Part of the Charm and Beauty of this Painting to me is that I am Unable to express in sentences why I find it so lovely, I can only express it in one-word Emotions like “Nobility” “Honor” “Love” “danger” but it is the indescribable aspects that make it such a great window into fairyland.
“But Caleb you said we need to put our mind at rest and to not be consuming content, Isnt looking at the painting just consuming more content” And yeah it is. But many of us still run from that specter of boredom. Looking at a painting or a landscape doesn’t stop our flight but it slows us down enough to see that maybe that specter is really a fairy trying to whisk us away on some adventure we can’t yet imagine.
If staring at Paintings isn’t for you try smoking. Grab a cigarette, cigar, or Pipe and stand outside. Hold “the fire of Prometheus in your fingertips” as Ayn Rand said watch the smoke drift up into the air and blow away. Witness the embers slowly burn as if looking deep into the Flame of a campfire. Smoking is a great tool in this fight against the constant consumption of content. Smoke Breaks force us out of whatever task we are doing and provides us the opportunity to breathe deliberately, take in the moment, and appreciate the passage of time. The act of lighting the cigar is akin to the sparking of new ideas, the inhaling of smoke is the deep breath before a plunge and the exhale of smoke is a sigh of love with Tobacco. The act of smoking covers the 3 parts of an adventure. The igniting of aspirations, the deep inhale in preparation for the struggle and the exhale a sigh of relief in coming home. The whole act inspires an opportunity for wandering. (travelers tip, offer the fairy a cig, who knows where you may end up) .
In the end, we all have the key to unlock the door to fairyland; we just have to take a break and find it. But Remeber ““It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” but "To live is to face the fear of uncertainty and to take risks, for only in doing so do we truly experience freedom and authenticity."