‘Boring’ was a surprisingly interesting theme for this month’s service.  ‘Parklife’ was a lively opening song, the narrative being wonderfully delivered by Rob, our host for the day, supported by our choir and the Sunday Assembly Brighton house band.

Sunday Assembly Brighton first-timer Michael Parker read his uplifting poem and proposed that ‘being bored isn’t boring’ and revealed that he loves to get bored and wait for inspiration to find him.  He amused us with his observations and his repeated Iggy Pop-esque proclamation, ‘I’m the chairman of the bored!!’, an expression that amused us all.

Our main talk was by James Ward who, inspired by a print by Andy Warhol ‘I like boring things’, started a blog of the same name. Disappointed by the cancellation of the 2010 ‘Interesting Conference’, James launched the ‘Boring Conference‘ which was billed as “a one-day celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked” and proved astonishingly popular, with tickets selling out.  Topics such as car park roofs and milk matching to cereals were covered, and there was a presentation of a sneeze journal by a man who recorded a snapshot of his life by noting down the force of every sneeze he suffered, as well as what he was looking at at the time.  James surmised that even the most mundane things become interesting when a person has taken the time to observe and present them.  The process of giving something time, attention and focus can be inspiring, no matter what the subject: they can turn a sneeze into a diary, or a packet of Munchies into a museum.

Our second song was ‘The Importance of being Idle’ by Oasis swiftly followed by Russell ‘the science guy’ Arnott who presented some interesting facts about the other sort of ‘boring’ in his potted history of drilling. We learnt that the deepest hole ever bored is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, reaching 12,261 km, barely scratching the surface of the earth’s 6500 km radius.

After a moment of reflection and this month’s notices, the choir and band led us through the third and final song, ‘Lazy Sunday’.

Who knew boring could be so uplifting?

We look forward to our next assembly on Sunday 22nd November when our main speaker will be the inspirational Ali Lapper, who will be giving her perspective on how we can celebrate our ‘Differences’.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Jo x

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