MULTI-LAYERED PATIENCE

"I'll be a couple of minutes, mate," said the orange-vested man, standing by the side of his enormous truck.

I was blocked; blocked and late back to my desk. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel while he unloaded his wagon with a giant mechanical crane. I couldn't drive around him (his vehicle was blocking the entire width of the road) and there was no other way out. I would have to be patient.

Do you think there might be two types of patience?

The reason I'm asking is that it suddenly occurred to me that I'm very good at waiting for something that I know will definitely happen.

In 'a couple of minutes', I thought to myself, this mustachioed workman will nod at me, climb into the cab and move out of the way. I can definitely cope with waiting. That's Level 1 Patience, right there. And it's only two minutes.

What I'm not so good at though is that waiting for the undefined 'hope' of a thing. That's where I get really impatient, when I've got no idea whether the thing is coming or not. Will the traffic light always be red? Will the bus ever turn up, or should I give up and find something else to do? Will that waiter ever come back with the bill? Will it ever happen? How long have I got to wait? This is Level 2 Patience.

I find it much easier to wait if a screen says the bus will be there in two (or twenty, or even forty) minutes, or if (as happened to me recently) the lady behind you in the queue gets out and tells you that this particular traffic light is stuck and you should just drive round it; it's the not-knowing for sure that drives me crazy. Level 2 Patience gets right under my skin and plays with my deepest fears.

But is the first example (it'll be two minutes mate) actually patience at all? Or is it just waiting, expecting, queuing? And is it complete madness to wait so patiently for a thing that might never be coming your way?

And if it isn't, how do you find out whether you're just wasting your life?

Also, if you're from Planet Go-Getter instead of being a Ketchup person (waiting for the best, which is yet to come) you're much more likely to do something about that Level 2 situation aren't you? So, is it sometimes okay to be... well, im-patient? By all means call it something else, like being 'proactive' or 'determined' or something, but it's essentially impatience with the interminable status quo. Is that alright?

I guess if you don't succeed anyway, it'll look exactly like impatience, but if you do, it'll look brilliant! Go-getters are wonderful at calculating the risk in those sorts of situations. I wish I were.

He whistled and smiled, jumped in and started the engine. Five minutes it had taken. I can cope with that, I thought to myself. I'm good with Level 1 Patience.