From the Depths

     Boredom, seemingly a dead state of mind, also holds a potential in suspension, waiting for release into the next, more active mental patterns.
     I wonder about famous philosophers as they found themselves listless and mentally inert.  Socrates staring at a wall.  Nietzsche getting irritated with a waiter.  Camus on a beach fantasizing about touching some woman's ass.  Are these unworthy thoughts of the great men of the past of any importance?  Does it matter to the "Life of the Mind" that my back hurts on the right side, has been hurting and I should call my chiropractor's receptionist for an appointment?
     I suggest that much of what philosophers have written was boiled inside their minds when they were subject to boredom, listlessness, feelings of uselessness, beset by trivialities, the ancient equivalent of what a human brain experiences when stuck in traffic.
     Out of these moments of pointlessness came points of contention.  This is just an idea based, in my case, on the great number of experiences wherein I've found answers and new interesting questions after periods of unproductive thinking.  It's necessary, apparently, to let the brain go down into the valleys of mundane time filler so that later on it can open up to brightness.
     The Death of Socrates makes for a dramatic painting.  Socrates Jerking Off After a Long-Winded Question and Answer Session seems less important, yet, wouldn't that depict the opposite side of "up time"?
     Up Time is when we're at work, interacting with family and friends, driving, getting interviewed for a job.  I've found that even inside Up Time, I roll private thoughts about to the extent that I feel like I'm alone even when surrounded by people I like and/or love.  Curse of the one who thinks too much.
     Yesterday at the museum where I work a former coworker came in and took some time to look at the newly remodeled lower level.  That level is devoted to art education and art activities for children.  I'm satisfied now with how it turned out.  For a while I didn't like some of the new chairs; they reminded me of decor in Dracula's Castle.  Now that the place is finished, it looks better, with additional far more comfortable furniture counterbalancing the Dracula element, plus a stage with a curtain and art books to look at, but no coffee machine.
     My former coworker came back upstairs and said to me, "IN-Credible!"
     "Amazing," "Great," "UN-Believable," followed her first exaggeration.  I'm not knocking this woman's personality.  I like her.  It was good seeing her after so many years.  I merely point out that her adjectives describing the new lower level begged for precision and also overstated what she actually saw.  Moses climbs Mount Sinai and God talks to him through the medium of a bush burning with a non-consuming fire.  That's incredible and amazing.  Granted, it's a Biblical story that may or may not have happened, but a words are for qualities or things that exist--or don't exist--in actuality or in theory.
     A richer use of language can come about from more Down Time mental moments, I suspect.  I'm concerned about the implications of this subject because of the debasement of language by today's criminally negligent Fourth Estate in this country.  They ape the word gargle of President Trump, who says, far too often, words like "Amazing," "Tremendous," "Great," "Incredible," "Fantastic."  With each utterance of these words, he never uses the adjectives correctly.  He may as well describe Vice President Pence's job performance as "Apricot," or "Cheddar," or "Telephone."
     Life isn't always interesting, but from the perspective gained from the dead moments of a day, when slight winds move fallen leaves in unnoticed seconds, a profounder approach to expressing thoughts can crystallize, pointing to new ways of thinking, and maybe also of being.

                                                                               Vic Neptune