February 16, 1999

True Patience

Among the most difficult virtues to see in a person, patience has to be among the impossible. Waiting for something to occur or happen is nothing if the expected event will eventually come to pass. For instance, waiting for the pizza delivery guy is not a true test of the will. Eventually, the pepperoni will come.

But what if the event is never expected to happen but a person continually waits for it? This is patience truly. A woman in 1944 waits for her son to return from Europe despite the telegram describing the loss of his plane over the English Channel. A child stays up each year waiting for Santa to come even though he has seen his parents bring in the toys on Christmas Eve. The mathematician who dabbles in proving Fermat's Last Theorem in a simple way. A person who has accepted living life alone who still looks around the corner for the one special person. A dog who patiently waits at the docks each day for his departed master to return from fishing for the day. The restless soul that hits the pillow each night in search of the missing fragments to some nocturnal dream. These are the patient people. They care not for pepperoni.