Patience, which has been thought a virtue since the third or fourth century, is now banished from our souls.
Today, instant information is required. That the package should be here tomorrow between noon and 4 isn’t good enough. Where is it right now? Is it having a label made? Has it left the sellers facility? Has it been scanned-in at the FIRST airport yet? Is it out for delivery? Where the FUCK is it?
What do you mean the repairman will be here tomorrow between 2 and 6? You can’t narrow that down for me? At all? What? There are three calls before mine tomorrow and the tech doesn’t know what it’ll take to fix those problems, sight unseen. Why not? You should know – its your JOB. Such Incompetence!
People refuse to wait.
Answer my text immediately, damn you. E-mail isn’t fast enough anymore. Pizza Stores send updates on the “progress” of your order, WITH PICTURES. We get results from our blood tests the same time as our Doctor – or before – because our Doctor has other patients to treat and consult. Isn’t making us wait some kind of malpractice?
Did you know computer time was once precious? No lie!
You had to wait your turn to run your program – imagine that. Today, amazingly fast, powerful, cheap computers are in children’s toys. Bar Codes, Scanners, and Networked Computers with science-fisctionesque processing capability reveal what wiper blade refill fits a 2006 Mazda B Series Truck Cab plus Four, that the Super Car Parts Store on Main Street carries them, that they’re in Aisle 2, Bin 13, and there are 14 of them in stock currently. Click a box and they’ll be waiting for you at Customer Service after 2:00pm, click another box and you can pay AHEAD OF TIME!
That’s just nuts.
Being able to access boundless information is nowhere near good enough. Information needs to be gathered, curated, and presented to people. Now! Folks get indignant if some bit of information to which they feel entitled isn’t immediately spoon fed to them directly. Where is my CONCIERGE SERVICE!
I don’t know, Karen. Ask my supervisor!
All this knowledge could be a good thing but it isn’t. Instant Information adds to our cumulative anxiety. If you don’t know EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW then “someone” is hiding, stealing, or withholding something from you. There can be no other explanation! The part of the mind that doesn’t know something fills with fear, dread, the expectation of catastrophe and evildoing.
Not Me!
I refuse to live that way. I was never super impatient in the first place but I remind myself often to just let life unfold. It’s not always easy, but it is never agony. It’s like going to a movie without seeing the trailer first – I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I AM eating popcorn.
Its okay to be in the dark now and then…