Among his many epigrams, Arts & Crafts guru Elbert Hubbard declared, “boredom is a matter of choice, not circumstance.” It seems that the Boring Institute couldn’t agree more, designating July as “National Anti-Boredom Month.” Writer Alan Caruba founded the Institute in 1984 as a media spoof of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade; his mock press release claimed that they were running ten-year-old footage of the parade on TV to explain what he saw as an exceedingly boring and repetitive annual event. Despite its Thanksgiving associations, the Boring Institute’s month of Anti-boredom events and observations serves as an antidote to the summertime blues—when many kids, free from the structure of the school year, try their caregivers’ patience and creativity with cries of “there’s nothing to do!” Since its satirical beginnings, the Boring Institute has shifted focus to issues of “self-awareness” to combat depression and related self-destructive behaviors. So, for Caruba, boredom can be a serious business, but fighting boredom for families over the summer relies on the thoughtful cultivation of a fun, anti-boredom mission.
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