Patience is a Virtue

I think most people would agree that patience is good. And I think that a lot of people would agree you should work towards building up character. But I very rarely meet anyone who intentionally tries to become more patient. Why?

Because BECOMING patient is boring. BEING patient however, is amazing. Frustration, anger, boredom, irritability, hasty words, and bad decision making can (emphasis on can) be symptoms of impatience.

Building patience, however, is anti American because it isn't requires you not getting to do what you want, and it isn't productive. Also, it's counter intuitive.

So the other day I decided to build my patience. I drove 5 miles under the speed limit for four hours straight this Sunday. This might horrify you, but if you do the math it comes out to costing me 20 minutes of my life.

Twenty minutes that might have been spent surfing the Internet, napping, watching TV, having pointless phone conversations, eating a snack, playing a video game, or writing on a blog. It's also twenty minutes that could have been put to good use, but lets be honest, I don't put much of my time to good use unless forced to.

Our culture is one of instant gratification. Imagine this. You can understand how sometimes rich people are more greedy with their money. Having a lot of something and reaping its rewards might make you cling to it harder. We are the fastest civilization that has ever existed. Cell phones, the Internet...the Internet ON cell phones...fast food, time saving/multitasking devices...all of these things make us think that NOW is good and later is bad, and we DESERVE now.

I'm not here to tell you that the sky is falling or that cell phones are contributing to the gradual disintegration of society as we know it. That's the sort of argument that should be made by somebody with FACTS! I offer only conjecture.

So do a little conjecturing of your own. Drive 60 on the interstate for thirty minutes. You'll feel like a slow idiot, but it will only take 2.5 minutes out of your life.** Then think real hard about all the things you would probably have spent 2.5 minutes on. I bet you spend the 32.5 minutes thinking a litte bit about the nature of patience and why we selfishly covet even the smallest increments of our time.

I think it would be a 2.5 minutes well spent. And if the drivers behind you get angry at you for the seconds it costs them, perhaps you'll wish that others were more patient too.

Ambulance drivers should not be patient. They can disregard this post, just like I know everyone else will.


*The Irony

**Probably a little bit more, assuming you were going to drive over the speed limit.