The Beauty of Being Bored

A good friend of mine at work is from London and we constantly talk about the difference between Europeans and Americans. 

Americans have giant flat screens TV's in our living rooms, Europeans think that is beyond crass. 

Americans buy tons of clothing, Europeans spend a great deal on very few outfits and wear them much  more frequently.

Americans live to work and Europeans work to live.  They travel extensively and value vacations more than we do.  

Americans go out to restaurants when getting together with friends, Europeans have more low key dinner parties.   

Americans are more impressed with money and material things that people posses, Europeans, are more impressed with the last book your read, or your political views, or what you are currently studying. 

Sure their teeth are shit compared to ours, but they seem to have a lot more substance than we do.  Of course these are gross generalizations and there are outliers in every category, but there is a truth to what she says. 

She herself is now living the life of a genuine New Yorker, although she has to go back to London soon as her Visa will expire.  She feels like since she has come to live in New York, all she does is work, spends the majority of her salary on rent and eating out, but says she can't help it as this is just the New York lifestyle. 

The one thing that I find the most fascinating about her experiences and feelings about the differences between Americans and Europeans is that she says, in the U.S nobody ever really just does nothing.  People in America are always doing something. 

In London when you ask someone on a Monday, "how was your weekend, what did you do?" and they respond simply, "nothing."  She says most people will answer back, "beautiful."  

Whereas in the U.S. if you ask someone that same question and they were to answer "nothing", they might look at you as if you were a little sad and pathetic.  

One day a few weekends ago, we had an early dinner {one of our favorite things to do} and then the girls and I sat around the table and worked on a fun project.  Just me and my girls.  Each one pulling a chair so close, they were practically in my lap.

It was beautiful.

Beautiful to be sitting together working on something that didn't involve anything technical or modern. Just talking and listening to each other. It was beyond awesome and certainly the highlight of my weekend. 

So for as much as I can, which usually isn't very much considering our sporting schedule on the weekend, I am going to try to schedule a little more nothing. 

A little more nothing so that maybe one day we could actually be bored. 

I would love to see what that feels like. 

Comments

[Natalie at Mommy on Fire]

Nothing IS a beautiful thing! We Snapps REJOICE when there is nothing on the calendar for the weekend. We LOVE it!

I think it's time I move to Europe. Pretty much everything sounded more appealing to me - except the teeth. I AM married to a dentist, you know. We value us some good dental health in our world.

Thanks for posting this - love the visual of you sitting around with your girls.

Here's to doing more nothing! :)

[Flo]

Ha Ha Im a Brit and I have to say your on the mark :) We very much enjoy not doing very much and especially the teeth lol
The one thing you Americans have got though is SPACE.....lots of space!! Its so cramped over here!!
Looking forward to reading your blog and comparing it to my lifestyle :D

[Gabriele Agustini]

Wishing you and your lovely family much, much more of 'nothing'. :)
Sending love ~ <3