Playing the Waiting Game
Sunday, January 11, 2015
I’m sure that, at some point in our lives, we have all heard about the fable of the hare and the tortoise (or simply the rabbit and the turtle). In that tale the two animals engage in a race and, of course, everyone expected the hare to win on account of his long legs and quick pace as opposed to the tortoise’ short feet and slow pace. However, while the hare may have been swift as the wind and, in my opinion, quite stupid for having stopped midway to sleep, the tortoise was patient and determined, continuously plodding on until he reached the finish line. And in the end slow and steady won the race.
Fellow toastmasters, guests good morning.
Are you the hare? Are you the tortoise? In this day and age, many, like me, will probably admit to being the hare a lot of times. We simply cannot wait. We find ourselves always in a rush ---- trying to get somewhere or to do something, sometimes even attempting to do two or more things at once --- and most times ending up nowhere and doing nothing at all or achieving only half of what we set out to do. We forget that the more important things in life take time --- to be, to do or to simply get there.
When you were much younger, (I am still young) we had to patiently learn how to walk and talk before we could go to school. And while in school, we spent most of our waking hours studying and studying and studying before we could graduate on to the next level until finally reaching the end of the academic line. Academics usually took us eighteen to twenty-four years, depending on which course we take or on whether or not we were sidelined by other extra-curricular activities, like boyfriends, boyfriends and more boyfriends. At times, we ask ourselves: do we really need to know all of these things in the real world? I mean, how much of history, mathematics and the sciences, for example, can we apply in our lives today? On hindsight, actually a lot, if not literally then by analogy. Imagine all that education just so we could be on our own --- to get a job, make money and start fending for ourselves. But it does not end there.
For next we have to contend with work and our careers. And this time it’s a much longer wait as it is a slow moving process climbing the ladder of success. Many of us do not get to the top right away unless, of course, we are the COOs or the child of the owners of the company or we sleep with the child of the owners. Gross! It happens, you know. For those of us who are neither, we have to spend hours after hours after hours of back-breaking hard work and exercise the highest standards of industry and diligence coupled with unrivaled integrity and unparalleled dignity before we are even considered for that much sought-after promotion. And even then we have to deal with our other office workers --- the so-called competition. I am sure that we have spent countless sleepless nights wracking our brains out trying to determine how to edge them out of the way. Indeed, patience and determination are the keys to surviving politics in the office.
Patience is likewise significant in our very own “love” lives. And may I direct this to all the single people out there. A lot of us are in a hurry to fall in love. Sometimes in our rush to do so we go out of our way to actively and consciously search for our Mr. or Ms. Right. We search high and low, near and far and sometimes even in the wrong places. Most times we end up brokenhearted and scarred for life. Many, at the first chance of a failed relationship, give up so easily. But as many of us find out eventually, love cannot be rushed. It has to be developed, first and foremost, within ourselves before we are able to truly and fully love another in the way that we want to be loved. We need to be prepared for the coming of that special someone by being a whole person first --- capable of loving and being loved. Because only when we are ready to love will we find that one special person who will love us in return. We need not, therefore, search for that very special love, what we need to do is to prepare ourselves for his or her coming into our lives. And so we wait---yet again.
Our life is one big waiting game. Waiting for graduation; waiting for that coveted promotion; waiting for that one true love… etc., etc., etc., and it is up to us to decide what pace to take. Shall we take each day as it comes, sometimes stopping to smell the flowers? Or shall we fast track every aspect of our lives and, in the process, neglect the small things that matter? As we choose, let us remember one very important thing: all good things come to those who wait. Again, I ask, are you the hare? Are you the tortoise?
- D. Banzon (2012)
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