Are you patient while waiting? Or impatient?---Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), December 12, 2000

Answers

Throughout my life, I have spent a lot of time waiting. In previous years, I have been extremely impatient (I remember the 30 minute waits to get through to an advice nurse when the kids were little, for example).

Somehow, however, my attitude about waiting changed when our kids died. I realized I was spending an awful lot of emotional energy being upset about things over which I had no control. Now I try to take deep breaths, focus on something else, and realize that in the scope of a lifetime, even a long wait isn't really worth getting upset over. (And I always try to have a book handy!)

-- Bev Sykes (basykes@dcn.davis.ca.us), December 12, 2000.

I am pretty impatient in general. I have little tolerance for waiting. I have a need to be entertained when I am waiting. If not, I find myself checking my watch constantly thus making the time go even slower.

I get especially impatient when I am kept waiting by someone who is late.

ally

-- Ally (ally3223@aol.com), December 13, 2000.

As in many other things, circumstances have a lot to do about my patience. I am crippled and can't stand in lines, so try to manage things to have a short wait. One place I do get impatient is in these durn supermarkets where there are 15 or more checkout positions and maybe, if luck holds good there will be three checkout clerks instead of two and long lines of customers. I feel that this is uncalled for. Being made to wait just because somebody has a whim of steel and is asserting their superiority over all, makes me impatient because I feel that my rights are being violated. Doctor's appointments and hospital waits - - - I carry a book and sit and read as I know that it will take time. Some circumstances make me disgusted rather than impatient.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), December 13, 2000.

I tend to be good at waiting. I always have a book with me, and blank paper. How can anybody be bored with blank paper and a pen? My mother has had several major operations in the last few years, and I always prefer to wait at the hospital by myself. I can read or think or write. If somebody else was there, they'd feel obligated to talk, and then so would I, and the time would seem to go on forever.

-- John Bragazzi (utown@worldnet.att.net), December 21, 2000.