Alex, you were talking about that book - I think it's called College Without High School? - and how life ought to be controlled by action and a motivation to accomplish. Tolerating boredom leads to more boredom which leads to the creation of a boring person.
In theory, I agree with this. Your life should be dictated by 1) you and 2) any forces in the universe that thrust obstacles in your path, because there's nothing anyone can do about those and you have to be prepared for them (sometimes simply by admitting that you're never going to be prepared for everything). If you want to go live on a glacier and commune with the polar bears, go forth and commune.
In practice, I have more reservations.
Firstly, I think we can all agree that many, many people on this earth are in less than ideal living conditions. Whether they are the Hurricane Katrina survivors who still have crappy not-even-real houses or the thousands of people in Burma who are terrorized daily or the illegal immigrants who immigrate illegally because they truthfully have no other choice, life has a tendency to serve you a great big platter of Suck. And, while it is admirable and encouraged to be as optimistic as possible, I imagine that when your family just got raped and slaughtered, it's a little bit difficult to foresee a future at all, let alone a good one.
Granted, most people aren't in situations as dire as that. Maybe we're talking about a Mexican teenager who doesn't speak very much English and had to drop out of school to work full-time because if he didn't, he would literally starve to death. Maybe we're simply talking about your average suburban student who really wants to be a musician but is probably going to go to law school and make twenty times as much money but is always going to carry that little grain of resentment.
The point is, you don't get everything you want.
I know that sounds dreadfully pessimistic. Really, though, it's true. The "American dream?" The one that obligates parents to tell their little girls, "Susie, if you try very, very hard, you can be the first female president!" The one that lifted Oprah up from the depths of poverty to multi-billionaire-dom.
The one that caused so many nineteenth-century immigrants to spend their life's savings on a trip across the Atlantic, only to find themselves face-to-face with a "No Irish Need Apply" sign.
It's a white lie. Or perhaps it's more similar to a legal contract with the fine print that nobody reads -
"AMERICA: LAND OF OPPORTUNITY*
*no refunds"
*no refunds"
Yeah, sometimes it just doesn't work out. Sometimes you work so hard every day of your life and yet your Social Security check doesn't increase one cent.
True, there are people who, through a boatload of effort and at least a little luck, do realize their goals. I daresay there are many people right now who can honestly say that they're happy with their lives. Sure, taxes are a little high, and they hate going to the dentist, but they wake up in the morning smiling, thank you very much. And certainly, the risk of failure shouldn't stop anybody from trying. It could be on one of those stupid little motivational posters (in fact, it probably is), but it's true: "If you're too scared to try, you'll never get anything, wimp."
(Perhaps it's phrased a bit more eloquently than that. Still. You get the point.)
I guess what I mean to say is this: sometimes you have to tolerate boredom. Sometimes it's a necessity for living. Sometimes you have to have your dreams at the top of some metaphorical, moving, Hogwarts-esque staircase - everything you do should be a step to that one goal, but sometimes the stairs swing and you find yourself headed in a different direction. It's up to you go keep working towards that goal, but you have to acknowledge that it's going to be more difficult, and that sometimes you're going to have to get stuck in that annoying missing step for a while until something (whether it's another person, another opportunity, or you yourself) pulls you out.
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