Is it bad to be bored?

I think people in this country need to be a bit more bored. We're "amusing ourselves to death," as one author put it. Yesterday, I combated boredom on a day off by filling my time with noise, the computer, and activity. While I filled my space with "stuff" I felt at the end of the day, meaningful time of thinking and creating wasn't accomplished. It seems to me that enjoyment of life, living a meaningful life, happens when we begin to think and create. In order to think and create, we need conversations with others, yes, but we also need space to think. The best ideas for games come from children who out of their boredom with the day create one. Boredom yields creativity and depth.

Are we afraid of being bored? Are we afraid of the silence? Are we afraid that we're "missing out" on the stuff of life around us? Are we allowing others to create for us...to do the meaningful work of thinking and creating? Boredom is simply another side of being still.