Patience

[democrank]

Whether I’m standing in line at a grocery store, sorting through my button jars to find just the right color, or stopped in traffic at a road construction site, I practice patience. Frequently I love the journey more than the destination, the process more than the end results, the kneading more than the toast.

Patience is a gift I gave to myself after a heartbreaking and sometimes violent childhood. I spent years pretending help would arrive and I fought off despair with writing stories about a fake brave uncle or a fake aunt who cared enough to drop by with something to eat or maybe some mittens.

I came to detest this waiting because many times it was the difference between eating or starving, temporary quiet or terror, health or sickness. This waiting required snap decisions on whether to stay or hide, stiffen or yield, claw or go down.

One of my most profound childhood lessons was figuring out the difference between patience and inaction. I learned about how an adult can pretend that standing by and enabling is actually patience, which it isn’t.

I’ve run out of patience with the Is Lead Really Bad for Children Study Group in Flint, Michigan. I’ve run out of patience with the Cage Suppliers for the child prisoners my government kidnapped. I lack patience with gun violence, the opioid crisis, senior citizens splitting pills in half to make them stretch.

I’m not too patient about homelessness or student debts, and where’s that big infrastructure bill? Why do pills that cost 13 cents to produce cost $57.00 to buy and how much longer is that going to go on?

Recently I saw a photo of three young people, each with a noose around their neck, each standing outside on a big block of ice. They may have been climate change activists, I don’t recall. All I could imagine was some elected representative strolling on past, assuring these young folks that as far as they could tell, the next few days were supposed to be quite cool....so don’t worry.

We should examine our response to the national/international crisis posed by Donald Trump. What exactly are we doing? Are we just waiting patiently or are we enabling?

[Karadeniz]

1. Excellent points! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!❤

[kwolf68]

2. Great post

I know people screaming for impeachment have excellent points, but Speaker Pelosi's job is to get things done and not slip up. She is taking this slow so that it does NOT backfire in anyway. Any mishaps and Dump comes out of impeachment 'looking good' and he may win again. I think she's getting everything lined up to strike. She's being smart. What difference does it make if we get this motherfucker impeached and jailed today or in two weeks? Just get him in and maybe delaying that date assures we have the ammo to clean the shitstain off the floor.