Hiding In Plain Sight

patience

I don’t like it when writers use French words to make their writing sound more intelligent. It’s such a cliché.

But that has nothing to do with the point of this post, so let’s move on.

You’ve heard the phrase “Patience is a virtue,” right? Well, whoever who coined that phrase was obviously retired. But I still believe it. In fact, apart from consuming Ring-Dings, I think that learning to be patient with others is probably the whole point of being alive.

But patience is difficult to learn, so the universe gives us teachers. They’re disguised and therefore hard to figure out, like a good AP Math question. But I’ve uncovered a few so far:

  •  The person during rush-hour who’s driving 10 mph below the speed limit in the left lane. Ever wonder why that person shows up on a work day when you’re running late, but never on a Saturday? That’s no accident.
  •  The guy in front of you at the Express Checkout Lane (two items only). He’s got a dozen individual beers that he claims constitute one twelve-pack, and fourteen vegetables that he says comprise one food group. That’s two items  in his world. If that was you behind me in line I’m sorry, but you had an assignment to complete. You just didn’t know it.

And my all-time favorite, my vote for Teacher Of The Year:

  •  The old lady at the Post Office counter during the Christmas rush. The line is backing up hard while she agonizes between the Peanuts Christmas book of stamps and the National Park ones. Every time she changes her mind my heart soars with laughter watching the guy next to me react. Given the tension level, the teaching jobs at the Post Office are reserved for the best teachers, hence their age.

Yup, these folks only show up when they’re needed. I guess they’re substitute teachers.

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4 thoughts on “Hiding In Plain Sight”

  1. Then there’s the person in line ahead of you at the street vendor’s cart, who is buying breakfast for himself and five co-workers. This only happens when you have about five minutes to get to work and you are dying for coffee.

  2. I wonder if French writers use English words to make their writing sound more intelligent?

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