Patience is Indeed a Virtue - R F Lambert

We often fret and fuss over the little things that annoy us. The tea is cold. The newspaper is late. Traffic is chaotic. The phone line is engaged. Indeed, the level of our annoyance gives us a glimpse into our ideas of self-importance. We consider ourselves so important that even the slightest irritation is intolerable. The rash of advertisements hard-selling ‘quick’ relief, ‘speedy’ clearances, ‘express’ counters, ‘fast’ downloads and ‘uninterrupted’ connections tell us a little about how impatient we have become. We find it impossible to be cheerful in the face of these ‘disasters’. We are driven to ‘despair’ even at the slightest possible threat to our private world of order, peace and harmony.

But, pause for a moment and look at the beggar on the road. You see him everyday when you drive to the office. His outstretched arm. On a busy road, every footfall, every shuffle, brings nearly unbearable expectation! Not that every person who walks towards the beggar is about to give his bowl even a passing glance. But the beggar lives and dies with each hope and each despair. There is a huge difference between what a passer-by calls despair and the despair that the beggar lives through. The passer-by may fume because he is late for his bus, but for the beggar, there may be no coin for seven hours at a stretch and there may be no kind passer-by for the next seven days!

Often what we call ‘disaster’ or ‘despair’ is nothing more than a trifle; and should be treated as such. But we ignore the fact that our little worlds are just that – little worlds. Nothing more. Nothing less. They are not always matters of ‘life and death’. Yet we so often yield to the temptation of building them up into something they are not. A mild headache. The occasional backlog of work. An overcooked dish. They are trifles. Not more. And certainly not less.

© "Deccan Chronicle" (dated January 28, 2004). Reprinted with permission.

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