The Visitor...

I live in a small boring southeastern town. I moved here because it is affordable, safe, and quiet. If I want excitement, I visit an exciting place or places. I have lived in many large and exciting cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Austin, St. Louis, etc. So EXCITING has become rather boring for me. Like Nilsson’s pointless forest in “The Point”, too many points makes it “pointless”. And too much excitement can make everything else boring. The people here are all pretty much the same and that means stability…and a type of exquisite boredom. We have a 15 year old relative staying with us from a much bigger and more exciting city. She is bored stiff!!! We are trying to make her stay with us more exciting but it is almost impossible. And at age 15, she does not have the maturity to be creative or to even be nice about being bored. I used to live on a farm with my grandparents way out in the country, before cell phones, before iPods, before FM radio, before cable TV. Can you imagine just how bored she would have been then? I admit, I’m not used to being around teenagers. There seem to be so many more things (physically and mentally) going on with teens now that I am at a loss to fully understand. Without mechanical entertainment, I had to make my own entertainment out of whatever was handy. I read a lot. I planned what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was depressed at times and when I was in college, I was depressed for a really long time. There was no psychologist to turn to then. (I'm glad the resources are available now because I sure could have used some help back then.) I am also taking into account that my guest comes from a very dysfunctional background. I know, I know…every family unit is dysfunctional in some way, but her family situation is really different. Understanding and sympathy is all I can offer. I cannot change it for her. She will have to develop her own coping skills like I did in my dysfunctional family unit when I was her age. She is counting the days until she goes back home. So am I.