Sunday Seven: Episode #161

I recently joined a brand new bible study group for men at my church, and the second week’s topic inspired this week’s question. I won’t go into the subject matter in detail in this post, but it’s about learning patience. One of the discussion questions asks the reader to consider how successfully he’d be able to remain patient in a given set of scenarios.

Here is the list, which you’ll use to answer this week’s question:

Getting trapped behind a slow driver on the interstate
Waiting in a long line at the bank
Waiting at a store behind another customer who needs a price check
Waiting for your best friend to show up at the surprise party you are throwing for him/her
Building (or purchasing) a home
Waiting for a promised raise or promotion at work
Waiting for test results from a doctor
Waiting for the arrival of a new baby in the family
Teaching a teenager how to drive a car
Waiting for a much-anticipated love interest to call for a second date

Those are the ten situations that you have to work with. But before the question, I ask for one more moment of your patience to recognize last week’s sole player. (Are there no other Hitchcock fans in the blogosphere?!?)

First to play last week: Scarlett of Scarlett’s Society of Quirky. Congratulations!

Here is this week’s “Sunday Seven” question. Either answer in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog…but either way, leave a link to your journal so that everyone else can visit! To be counted as “first to play,” you must be the first player to either answer the questions in a comment or to provide a complete link to the specific entry in your blog in which you answer the questions. A general link to your blog cannot count. Enjoy!

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: Name the seven scenarios listed in which you’d have the most difficult time maintaining your patience.

The most stressful and long-term "I-have-no-patience-for-this" experience was purchasing a house. The whole process is one that speeds up the aging process in a super fast manner. First there is the search, then putting a bid, then the bidding war, then the waiting periods for the financial end, the inspections, etc. Finally there is waiting for the closing and of course, you are never on the same schedule as the sellers. The last time we did this we were in both roles: buyers of this house, sellers of the old one. Ugh. It was unbelievable.

However, that has been twice in my lifetime, and I'm 40 - this is not stuff that one does all the time. So there are two answers to this.

The most stressful, oft-occurring stress is getting trapped behind a slow driver on the interstate (Route 80 comes to mind). This happens all too often and it seems to have a direct relationship to how much of a hurry I'm in. If I'm more than on time to arrive somewhere, then I just sigh and live with it. If I'm in a hurry (and I'm only in a hurry if I am potentially late, which is not often), then I stay a good distance and politely turn my lights on and off to tell them to get out of the fast lane.

If that doesn't work and I absolutely have to get around that slow poke, I will pass on the right to get around them. But that is a last-ditch thing. Generally, I turn up the music and just deal with it. What else is there to do? Tailgating and honking is illegal, unsafe and won't usually accomplish anything.