Patience Is, Indeed, a Virtue

Patience is a virtue, and it seems to be harder and harder to find these days.  People seem to have no patience anymore, and they seem to get ruder all the time.  And as people get older, do they just naturally become more impatient?  It sure seems that way to me.

I’ll be the first to admit that the older I get, the less patient I become.  Maybe it’s because time seems to go faster with each passing year, and I don’t want to waste any of it.  Lord knows I’ve wasted enough of it over the past several years.  But I hope I’m not turning into one of those impatient people that annoy me so much.  I work, part-time, in customer care, and I can’t tell you how many people are in a hurry these days.  And yes, I’m one of those people, but I try not to be terribly rude about it.

People literally expect you to wait on them before you’ve even finished with the person ahead of them.  And if the person ahead of them has a few questions and takes a little longer, the next person is clearly agitated and will let everyone in line know about it.  Before you know it, everyone in line is complaining about the line.  What they don’t realize is that their negative behavior will not get them waited on any quicker.  In fact, I will gladly explain to them why the person in front of them took longer than usual…which wastes even more time.  Just a tip you might want to keep in mind the next time you’re in line…

And what’s the big rush anyway?  Where are all these folks rushing off to these days?  Often they’re running somewhere to get in another line.  Life is just one big line after another to get to the next event.  Maybe if we all just planned a little better next time, we could actually get somewhere early (or at least on time) and avoid the long lines completely.

Anyway, good luck with that.  As for me, I’m lucky if I get anywhere early.  All I can shoot for is to be on time, at least some of the time.  Until then, save me a spot in line.