I
originally felt the urge to write this yesterday, but I waited.
Waiting.
Funny....thing...isn't...it..…..wait…....ing.
We
actually should spell it w-e-i-ghting. We allow waiting to
weigh heavy on us...a pause......even a.....pregnant pause
is usually more comfortable than a wait. I believe we let
waits irk us the most..of all irksome things. We see ourselves
as helpless in a waiting situation. We are helpless anyway,
even when we aren't waiting. So why do we let it bother us?
Living
in Japan teaches an individual how not to wait. Everything
is done at the speed of light, or mach 1 or whatever...HAI-YAI…FA-SU-TO,
as they say. The bank lines, the toll roads, the grocery lines
- never that long. Efficiency is of utmost importance there.
And when people wait, they do it with an honor - like they
are on stage, but they don't have any speaking lines for the
moment. However, for a foreigner, the patience practice comes
when one realizes that they are being stared at all the time,
judged for the way they look, or don't look. This is a different
kind of waiting...the wait for the next time one can jump
on a plane and fly home to a culture you know and understand,
at least a little better.
Living
in India teaches one about how not to worry about what anybody
thinks. Everyone there just says it like it is. No one hides
behind anything. And though many vacationers you talk to who
passed through India hated the queues, I seem to not remember
them. Yeah, most people wait at banks, hospitals, government
buildings, bus stations, and train stations - for hours. But
so what? Appointments are missed regularly there, so it's
ok to be late. People just tip their head to the side with
a grin. It's because they know it's more important than working,
and doing what you "have to" do. I think they got it. And
let's face it, do you really have anything you must do? Do
you remember, really, anything you REALLY had to do last week?
Hey, in India, if you are "waiting," you're actually
just living, and most people just order a chai and enjoy humanity
in all it's kaleidoscopic/chaotic glory. I wish we all adopted
that viewpoint here sometimes.
Then
there is Denver and Interstate 25 (substitute any city and
any one of it's larger thoroughfares here). We are in the
middle of the psychic sliderule that is flanked by the aforementioned
countries. America: sometimes efficient, sometimes too forward,
sometimes not forward enough, and in my well-waited opinion,
we complain the most about waiting. You know, I feel we've
got it made. I truly believe life makes us wait at times to
get us to where we really need to be when life wants us to
be there. No theology arguments here.
My
personal vibe on it is that the universe conspires with you
for the happiness you really want but are afraid to ask for,
and waiting is that unpredictable x factor, the pectin that
holds your jam together. I've littered (or shall I say lettered)
a few too many puns in this piece today, but may I end with
a peculiar homonym in the Japanese language. "Matsu" is the
verb for waiting. "Ma-tsu" is also the word for pine tree.
Next time you're living and you label a moment of existence
as a "wait," imagine yourself sitting in a tranquil setting,
under a pine tree, and reconsider you judgment. Accept your
place in the act, on the stage, without a line...even if you
are waiting in one.
Email Lance at: Lance@hybridmagazine.com
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