One of my favorite Joan Rivers’ lines, was years ago when she made fun of Elizabeth Taylor’s weight gain. Joan said that Elizabeth Taylor would put something in the microwave and stand there yelling, “Hurry up! Hurry Up!”
Today, this doesn’t seem so unusual because we live in an instant download world but back then, the relatively new microwave ovens were surprisingly fast. The humor came from thinking that anyone would want their food cooked faster. Today, as someone once said, if we miss one section of a revolving door, our entire day is shot.
Why is it that we have so much trouble waiting? Have we been conditioned to believe that right now is late, and a few seconds later is unrecoverable?
Find out what's happening in Herndonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I was waiting to board a plane the other day, and there was sign off to the right that said, “This is a TSA screening area. You may be chosen for a random screening.”
I looked up the word “random” in the dictionary and the definition was “anyone who looks suspicious or anyone who would be terribly annoyed if we chose them for a random screening.”
Find out what's happening in Herndonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
For thirty minutes, the TSA agents had sat in their holding area drinking soda and joking with each other (although when I joked that the smell of my feet when I had to remove my shoes was more lethal than a bomb, I was reprimanded). And then, when the time came time for us to board the plane, they started randomly searching the passengers.
The guy in front of me said, “Why couldn’t they have done that while we were waiting?”
Good point. But then again, why is it so awful for us to wait a few minutes more?
When my wife became pregnant with our first child, we were very excited. And yet, we had to wait nine months to welcome our daughter into the world. We didn’t pace around the house complaining because God made us wait nine months. We planned, we anticipated, and we drank lots of alcohol (wait, that was just me) thinking about the responsibilities of parenthood. It was a magical time when my wife glowed and I enjoyed every single minute of my quickly diminishing freedom.
Recently I read that the Postal Service may eliminate Saturday deliveries in an attempt to reduce costs. And some people are going nuts about this.
“You mean I have to wait 48 hours to get my Dominoes Pizza coupons? What’s the world coming to? Next thing you know, it will take me 20 minutes to save 15 percent or more on my car insurance. Oh, the humanity.”
I will admit that hate to wait. I especially hate to wait when someone else’s error was the reason for my wait. I was in Safeway the other day and a man in front of me bought a bottle of wine with no bar code on it (perhaps he and his wife were expecting too). The cashier asked the bag boy to go check the price but the bag boy refused because he said he wasn’t “good at finding the right bottle.” Then the cashier gave the bottle to another cashier at the next register. Instead of asking the manager to check the price, the other cashier left her post and went looking for the price. So, now, both lines have completely stopped. The wait was about five minutes before the cashier came back with the price. But if felt much more like six. Oh, the humanity.
I think this instant download mentality isn’t good for us. I was all tensed up in the Safeway instead of using my wait time to chat with the other shoppers, check my email messages, or read about the alien that visited Newt Gringrich on the cover of the tabloid magazines. I didn’t do that. I just stewed.
Our parents taught us to be patient. They told us that good things are worth waiting for. But somehow we’ve forgotten. And somehow this doesn’t seem to apply to the lines in airports or grocery stores.
My wife and I dated for six years before we were married. For the last two years, we lived in different states. As I look back, I realize that distance did make the heart grow fonder. So did the waiting.
Maybe life isn’t about getting everything right now. Maybe it’s about taking advantage of the wait and appreciating the anticipation of good things to come.
And for me, a bar-coded bottle of wine with a properly executed TSA pat down is well worth the wait!
