I'm not patient - I'm just not. I try and I can simulate it when necessary, but I'm of the opinion that the world would be a much better place it everyone learned to simply get out of my way. I've got places to go and things to accomplish.
So, the other day I'm walking to a meeting and there's a woman in front of me - walking slowly. My normal walking pace is pretty fast, so most of the time I'll just move on past them and leave them in my dust. And with the amount of construction around here, that's a lot of dust.
This time, however, there's a problem. I can't get past her. She's carrying a purse, a lunch bag, a totebag, and she's pulling one of those luggage things on wheels. In essence, she's "walking wide" - a condition where one person on the sidewalk is taking up the place of multiple people. In her case, I'd estimate about three could have fit in that space.
There are trees on one side of the sidewalk and a wall on the other. Traffic is too heavy to take to the street past the trees. I'm trapped.
Moments pass. I try to pass the time by counting squares of sidewalk.
1.....2.....3.....4.....5...........6.................7.....................8...................9.........................................10...............................
Then, the unthinkable happened. Her cell phone rang.
The Invader Zim "doom song" starts to play through my head.
She slowed to a stop, set some of her bags down and started to rummage. By some quirk of fate, she turned just slightly and presented me with a narrow route past her. Fortunately, I'm still pretty scrawny and was able to dart past her and make my way to my meeting.
The funny bit? I don't think she ever saw me - she was so wrapped up in her world and her assorted crap that I wasn't even a factor. Kinda sad, annoying, and scary all at once.
How much of our world do we miss as we walk through our days? Is our mind working to gather information, or working to filter it out? I may have been ruled by my impatience, but she was just as ruled by her own material possessions. She didn't need anyone or anything else, she had what looked like her whole world with her.
I try, even at my hurried pace, to pay attention to the world around me. Stopping and smelling the flowers where appropriate, that sort of thing. And I "walk narrow" - letting the flow of the world move around me, buoy me along with it sometimes.
The moral - no one is alone here on this small blue planet. And I believe we have an obligation to notice those around us - not to control or interfere, but to acknowledge that their journey is as important as ours.
And please, "walk narrow" if at all possible. I'm in a hurry.
