Last month, my husband and I completed what some of our friends considered a foolish task: a 32-day, 5, 232-mile camping trip with children in our Volkswagen van, without ''high-tech'' to occupy the children.

It was the screen less journey that showered me with doubts. But is ''boredom'' senseless? My friend Renee, who has driven cross-country with her three kids eight times, calls boredom the mother of creativity. She's not the only one who sees virtue in blank time. In a recently published paper, researchers at East Anglia University in England concluded that the trance like (发呆的) state helps recharge the mind and is ''central to learning and creativity''. I wasn't trying to make my kids smarter. Neither do I dislike high-tech. But I understand too well the power of mini screens to transform our kids into zombies (木讷的人) .

On Day 1, our 7-year-old son announced ''Texas is so boring!''. The next day, struggling against his seat belt, he yelled he couldn't take much more of this. His 5-year-old sister was better at the long hours playing make-believe with the stuffed animals. On Day 3, he began count mountains and see pandas and dolphins in distant clouds in the Texas sky. I often joined the kids in the back, where we did thumb-and-toe wrestle. With well-known mountains ahead, my husband told the children the past legends of them. ''Arizona is not as boring as Texas,'' our son declared.

I hope the trip gave kids some lazy, unstructured time to learn something about valuing the trip instead of looking for the fastest way to burn it up. I don't always make the right call as a parent but I know that in banning the small screen we made the right choice this time.

So far, with the knowledge in clinical specialty, I’ve worked in a few addiction clinics. In this insight article, I want to share my experiences of a more or less the same situation that different people responded differently.

The first clinic I started to work in a winter, lay in the remote forest. The location of the clinic was about 15 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop. The temperature could reach minus 13 degrees and the snow was often very thick during the winter. As a result, there were even traffic signs saying that drivers had to use special tire chains to avoid getting stuck in the heavy snow. Although the scenery in this area was very beautiful, it wasn’t easy to walk 15 minutes or more in freezing temperatures.

Sometimes, on my way to work, I met a young man or two coming out of the woods who walked around half an hour or even longer to make a living. Although living in such a harsh and unfriendly natural atmosphere, they still faced such cold winter bravely.

At another clinic, I had a conversation with Peter who was developing an addiction due to the same condition. He lived in a very remote area. Finding a job and going to work were not easy to do. In desperation, he fled into the arms of alcohol.

Two similar situations with two different outcomes. Certainly, I don’t need to explain which action and attitude are better. What I want to emphasize here is the matter of choice. The possibilities and approaches that each person has, are different. However, if everyone has the same opportunities and accesses, will the choices and responses given be the same?

Life is a choice, you better choose the things that make you better.

One day a student was taking a walk with his teacher. As they went along, they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path. They were a poor farmer’s, who was working in the nearby field.

The student turned to the teacher, saying: “We will hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those trees, and wait to see what he will do.”

“My young friend,” answered the teacher, “we should never make fun of the poor. Why not put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch?” The student did so and they both hid themselves behind the trees. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes.

After putting on his coat, he put his foot into one of his shoes, and felt something hard. Then he bent (弯腰) down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Surprised, he looked at the coin, turned it around and looked at it again. He then looked around, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe. His surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.

He couldn’t control his feelings and fell to his knees, looked up to the sky and expressed his thanks. Then he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the help would save them from dying.

The student stood there deeply moved, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the teacher, “are you not much happier than if you had hidden the shoes?”