Why is patience sexy?
The answer is: it’s not. I just wanted to use sexy in the title of a post, but I guess it could be, given the right situation.
The better question might be, is patience a virtue, as the old adage goes?
Virtue is a commendable quality, or a standard of excellent morality.
Patience is a little more tricky to define, dictionary.com says this:
The quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
Patience is difficult for me. I don’t think I’m different than a lot of people, though. When we want something, we want it right now. We don’t want to wait until tomorrow or next week or next year.
We don’t want to wait for the seasons to change, we don’t want to wait for the car in front of us to turn and we absolutely don’t want to wait for the store clerk to finish with the person ahead of us in line before we have their attention.
What has created this big ‘hurry up’ attitude?
I’m not sure it’s as much a ‘hurry up’ attitude as it is an avoidance of a perceived or contrived displeasure. Back to the definition: Bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, or irritation. Herein lies the trouble.
On a side note, my Grandmother used to get so annoyed if delayed in a line by a clerk or receptionist, she would begin rolling her eyes and mumbling under her breathe of the inconvenience and incompetence of the person offering service. The absurd part is the fact that she normally had nowhere to go and nothing else to do.
The near impossible part is bearing the pain of waiting.
Is it a commendable quality of high morality to endure the undesirable without discontent?
I don’t know, you be the judge. I believe it certainly speaks to character and self control.
I’ve made a game of it. When I feel that twinge of impatience nagging at me, like following too closely behind a slow driver, or getting hot under the collar, grumbling on the inside. I imagine my grandmother standing there and do the exact opposite of what she would have done.
Maybe you are purposely getting the occasional signal to . . . wait.
The reason behind your impatience won’t seem all that important in an hour or two. After all, the past is irreversible and the future is irrelevant. It’s the moment that counts.
Go ahead and hurt me. Make me wait I can take the pain without protest. Now that’s sexy.
