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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
Patience is a virtue
So you’re standing in line – a long line – and hating every minute of it.
You finally get to the front with only one person to go before it’s your turn –but the person blocking your way seems to be a bonafide idiot, asking every obvious question known and unknown to man.
You’re running late. Your blood is boiling.
My God! Can someone really not know where to sign their name?
Suddenly
you are faced with choices. A multiple-choice test and
choose-your-own-adventure book combo reveals itself and interrupts your
inner monologue.
What do you do?
A) Mutter obscenities under your breath, just loud enough for the person to hear.
B) Complain to the person helping the annoying question-asker, asking if he/she could “Speed it up.”
C) Grab the person in front of you, push them aside, and yell, “You sign your name on the dotted
line, Gosh-darnit!”
…Or
D) Wait patiently in line.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve been stuck in a long line that never seemed to end or a testing
situation where someone still doesn’t understand how to bubble in their name.
But waiting isn’t the only thing that can try your patience.
Someone asking me the same question 10 times in one night or interrupting me over and over again
while I’m doing something can often times cut my fuse shorter than being stuck in traffic.
Having patience is hard, especially in our go-go-go society.
If “time is of the essence” then how dare you interrupt or cause me to lose any amount of my precious
time?
But that, my friends, could very well be the downfall of the human race.
The idea that my time is more valuable than yours creates a sense of unnecessary superiority,
arrogance, and just a downright rude atmosphere.
Everyone has the same amount of time. We all have 24 hours to do whatever we want with.
Just because you procrastinated and now find yourself in a time crunch, that doesn’t mean you have
any less time than the person standing in front of you.
You both still have T-minus three hours until Gilmore Girls and five hours left of sunlight.
Just because you feel like you have three minutes until your head explodes, that doesn’t give you any
right to be rude to a fellow human being.
Sometimes patience really is a virtue.
Do you really think that getting road rage because somebody doesn’t know what a speed minimum is
will help you in the long run?
Getting aggravated will only have bad results, especially if you let your impatience drive you into a
speeding ticket or into the back of a slow car that stops abruptly.
For me, I’ve learned to take deep breaths and suck it up. Patience does have its benefits. One time I
was buying a late dinner at a café that seemed to be over-run with overly bubbly junior high kids who
couldn’t decide what they wanted and just stood in my way talking a mile a minute.
The chef working kept hollering, “I’ll be with you in a second! Thanks for waiting” over and over again.
And I would just nod a, “Sure. No problem. Thanks” in reply.
Finally when the kids had left, he gave me my order, but he started pouring fries onto my plate.
“Sir, I didn’t order fries.”
“Well,” he said. “Don’t you want fries?’
“What?”
“Everyone wants fries,” he smiled. “It’s a present for being patient.”
A present for being patient? Is there such a thing?
Apparently so.
And although I know that the ridiculously stupid person in front of the line who can’t grasp the concept
of signing their name on a dotted line won’t give me a free basket of fries, I’ll still try to be patient.
After all, I never know who is watching and appreciating.
God? The chef? A millionaire who wants to pay for my college education?
And even if I don’t get anything from it, then at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that today, I
didn’t act like a jerk.
And that is something worth working for.
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