Patience
Loch Goil in the sun
Knockhill British Superbikes was every bit the anticipated blast. The weather packed enough variety into a single weekend to challenge an entire year anywhere else. From full-length raincoat and woolly hat on Friday practice, to shorts and suncream on a blistering Sunday race day. The campsite was packed and, with Scotland playing in the World Cup, it was bound to be lively. The racing was fabulous, the food a little iffy, the beer free-flowing, and the sleep fitful. I’ve now got a stye in my little eye, thanks to a combination of dusty spectator tracks and being a bit run down after all the excitement. As long as nobody expects me to appear in any photographs, I’ll be fine and back to my gnarly best before long.
Events over the past couple of weeks have had me thinking about the virtues of patience…
I’m often praised by friends for my patience. I’m not so sure. I know I’m an infuriating perfectionist for whom the phrase “good enough” is like nails down a blackboard. I don’t let complexity deter me. I can contentedly work into the wee small hours to hone the details of a photograph, a design, a funding application, whatever. I will throw myself at a task and give it everything - sometimes to the detriment of my health. Tenacity maybe?
I seem to tolerate remarkably tedious situations. I’ll outlast my wife and just about anyone else in a boring queue or an interminable meeting. I can spend hours wading down a river without catching a single fish and still come home smiling. My latest photography commission is proving fascinatingly challenging and is almost entirely dependent on elusive good weather, but I’ll keep taking test shots and waiting for the clouds to part. It’ll happen eventually.
My patience however fails spectacularly when it comes to two things: money or being let down…
Money has a habit of burning through my pockets. I just love shopping. Earlier this week I stared at an online basket, fully aware that if I simply waited until after my credit card statement date I’d have another month’s grace before paying for it. Did I wait? Did I f…
I’ve also had the dubious pleasure this past few weeks of dealing with bank, phone, and energy company changes. Admin. Automated messages and wait music. Being handed from pillar to post. Filling in forms that were continually rejected. Being promised resolutions that never materialised. The inconsistency between operators is infuriating. Eventually I lost my temper and shouted down the phone at one particularly officious, and outrageously unhelpful customer service representative. Not one of my finer moments.
It’ll all come out in the wash. Besides, I get to see my new granddaughter and her ever-so-slightly bigger sister next week (and their mum of course). I cannot wait.
