I’ll get this up front: I hate to wait.
I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. I’m not the only one changing to the lane with less cars at a stop light. Or the line with less people at the store. As our technology micro-defines the meaning of instant, our fuses get trimmed as well. It’s increasingly tough just to take a deep breath and let things evolve.
This morning, I’m in a holding pattern with my work. Projects which were brought to me as urgent by clients, have somehow gotten suspended in the netherworld of their distraction. They should have sent me content to get started on, or approval to move forward. Instead I fidget, waiting for the promised storm of work to break.
Other challenges loom like dark thunderheads on the horizon.
It’s a good time to sit on a bench.
I chose one outside of our local high school. It’s in an odd location. Since I started this series, I’ve begun to think about the placement of benches – more about that in a future post – but I couldn’t figure out why this one would be plunked down along the sidewalk leading from the parking lot. Who would need to stop along the way? A student who doesn’t want to break his streak of tardiness? A teacher who just can’t make herself go towork one more day in June? (I felt that collective nod, teacher friends.)
After taking a few pictures, I turned to sit and saw a woman approaching. “Look,” she said, “It’s the Benched man!”
It was my friend, Stacy, who apparently is reading these posts. I had to laugh and wonder aloud,“What are the chances someone who knows of the blog would see me?” Stacy replied, “It is a small town, after all.”
So she sat with me. We talked about these essays, about benches in town, about our kids,about books, about teachers in the high school. We even did a little sleuthing concerning the placement of our bench. Noticing that it was engraved with the name of the class that created it, Stacy figured it was put here as a project, with no deeper intent than to display their handiwork.
A half-hour flew by chatting with her. And that reminded me of a fundamental truth about anticipating both the good and the bad: friends mitigate the wait. Not profound, I know. We all have anecdotes to prove the point. Recently, I was stuck for three hours in the San Francisco airport after being bumped from a flight. Having joked with the guy behind me in line, I found that I had a good-natured fellow bumpee to kill the time with. Who knew that delays could be fun?
The trick is finding friends willing to join in the waiting.
Who don’t mind slowing down long enough to sit for a spell with a benched man.
I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. I’m not the only one changing to the lane with less cars at a stop light. Or the line with less people at the store. As our technology micro-defines the meaning of instant, our fuses get trimmed as well. It’s increasingly tough just to take a deep breath and let things evolve.
This morning, I’m in a holding pattern with my work. Projects which were brought to me as urgent by clients, have somehow gotten suspended in the netherworld of their distraction. They should have sent me content to get started on, or approval to move forward. Instead I fidget, waiting for the promised storm of work to break.
Other challenges loom like dark thunderheads on the horizon.
It’s a good time to sit on a bench.
I chose one outside of our local high school. It’s in an odd location. Since I started this series, I’ve begun to think about the placement of benches – more about that in a future post – but I couldn’t figure out why this one would be plunked down along the sidewalk leading from the parking lot. Who would need to stop along the way? A student who doesn’t want to break his streak of tardiness? A teacher who just can’t make herself go towork one more day in June? (I felt that collective nod, teacher friends.)
After taking a few pictures, I turned to sit and saw a woman approaching. “Look,” she said, “It’s the Benched man!”
It was my friend, Stacy, who apparently is reading these posts. I had to laugh and wonder aloud,“What are the chances someone who knows of the blog would see me?” Stacy replied, “It is a small town, after all.”
So she sat with me. We talked about these essays, about benches in town, about our kids,about books, about teachers in the high school. We even did a little sleuthing concerning the placement of our bench. Noticing that it was engraved with the name of the class that created it, Stacy figured it was put here as a project, with no deeper intent than to display their handiwork.
A half-hour flew by chatting with her. And that reminded me of a fundamental truth about anticipating both the good and the bad: friends mitigate the wait. Not profound, I know. We all have anecdotes to prove the point. Recently, I was stuck for three hours in the San Francisco airport after being bumped from a flight. Having joked with the guy behind me in line, I found that I had a good-natured fellow bumpee to kill the time with. Who knew that delays could be fun?
The trick is finding friends willing to join in the waiting.
Who don’t mind slowing down long enough to sit for a spell with a benched man.
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