Waiting Room – “Good things come to those who wait.” Do you agree? How long is it reasonable to wait for something you really want?

In “Stranger In A Strange Land,” Michael Valentine Smith typically said “Waiting is.” It was one of those zen-like inscrutable comments. Kind of goes well with Bill Belichick’s “It is what it is.”

Both translate loosely to “The moment contains what it contains. Since we can’t do much about it, we might as well shut up and go with the flow.”

Waiting doesn’t get you anything but a seat on the bus or an opportunity to explain something to a bureaucrat when that little numbered slip of paper is finally called.

Nor, in my opinion, do the meek inherit the earth, unless you count a grave as an inheritance. Waiting — a lack of activity or withdrawal from events in progress — may keep you out of trouble, but it won’t get you noticed. The doctor won’t come out and see you on the bench. It won’t make anyone pick up your manuscript and decide to publish it. It won’t get your job done — any job, anywhere. It won’t get you a job.

It’s an expression which sounds good on paper, but what does it mean? If it means “the baby won’t come until it’s fully developed” … okay. If it means you need to let the bread rise and bake before you can eat it? Fine. Both these are active attempts to create something which coincidentally requires some waiting. Not like being put on hold while someone on the other side of the world finally gets around to taking your call … then promptly disconnects you.

The baby didn’t self-create nor did the bread. Nothing gets started by waiting. Waiting is stasis. What you do after you’ve acted, implemented, and are passing through an interval necessary for fruition.

Hey, anyone been up for jury duty, sat in a big room with a lot of other people who don’t want to be there … and then be told you aren’t allowed to talk, read, or leave the room until someone says you can?

That is waiting at it’s finest. 90% of the time, someone will eventually come to tell you to go home.

I won’t wait on lines in restaurants or at movies. If the grocery is very crowded? I leave. I’ll shop tomorrow.

I wait only for things to bloom, finish developing, be delivered, cool, bake, dry, or land at the airport. Otherwise, there are lots of things to do. I’ll always prefer to do than wait.

Categories: Daily Prompt, Quotation, Sayings and Platitudes

Tags: Daily prompt, DPchallenge, humor, platitudes, sayings, waiting