But that doesn't mean I don't have patience at all.
For most of my life, I remember my father being accused, mainly by my mother, of having no patience. It's true he was known to shout from behind the wheel, "It ain't gonna get any greener!" when the driver ahead of him failed to hit the gas the instant the light changed. But I came to believe, years later, that my dad had gotten a bad rap.
Why? I think the reason lies in defining "patience." My definition is this: Patience is peacefully waiting for that which is worth waiting for.
Patience is not being content to do things the hard way when there is an easier way, or the slow way when there is a faster way, or--I'm going to speak plainly here--the stupid way when there is a smarter way. Because when people insist on doing things the hard, slow, less-smart way when there is an easier, faster, smarter way, they often display something quite opposite of the virtue of patience: namely, the sin of moral superiority.
Have you seen it? I have--someone viewing the easier, faster, smarter, and often newer solution with suspicion, implying you are lazy, or getting away with something, or basically kind of a slacker for accomplishing the goal with less labor or in less time than the way they've always done it. They are more hardworking, more patient, than you, is the message.
But patience is not settling for inefficiency.
Patience is what my dad displayed when, having graduated from high school, he could not afford college, so he went to work selling shoes. Then came Pearl Harbor and a four-year stint in the Marines. Finally, after the war, he was able to go to college on the GI bill and graduate with his degree, NINE years after he got his high school diploma.
Patience is peacefully waiting for that which is worth waiting for.
