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Writer's pictureKirsten Weiss

UnTarot Distraction

--Kirsten Weiss


When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Estonia, I used to spend a lot of time on trains. This was before I had a cellphone, so either I brought a book or I stared aimlessly out the window.


Once, while in aimless-staring phase, a collective gasp startled me from my stupor. Outside the opposite windows was the aftermath of a train derailment. Massive train cars were piled pell-mell like children's toys. Fortunately, it wasn't a passenger train, but the image stuck with me.


On another occasion, I'd run all out of English-language books and was bored as hell. The uneven tracks and ancient train swayed with a rhythmic thump and clatter--so rhythmic that it was poetic. So poetic, I actually composed a long child's poem for Halloween, memorized it on the way to the capital city, Tallinn, and hastily wrote it down when I got there.


I still have it, and still think it's the best poem I've ever written.


There's a lot of creative power in boredom.


But now it's way too easy to find distractions from boredom with my cellphone. I try to resist, try to sit with boredom, but it's damned difficult.


I was thinking about that train ride--though didn't write about it--as I wrote up the long description for the Distraction UnTarot card. Instead I wrote about dark magicians using distraction online to take us away from our greatness, and about the perils of being unable to focus one's mind.


Maybe I should have written about the blessings of boredom instead.


The UnTarot/Legacy of the Witch Kickstarter launches February 14th. If you click this link then click the green "Notify me on launch" button, Kickstarter will remind you when it launches.


Distraction untarot card - numbing, avoidance, distractions

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