When did we start caring less about how far and so much more about how fast? When did now become better than right? When did pace become the first measure of progress? When did we grant urgency so much power over what is possible? When did patience move from virtue to sin?
As a colleague recently observed, I'm often very cynical about where we are and yet incredibly optimistic about where we can go. But I'm also something of a fatalist. Add it all up and I tend to believe that what is right is also possible, and maybe even inevitable. But I've also been around the block enough times to know that sometimes, despite all the passion and logic and clarity in the world, it can take time for right and possible to collide. That space between right and possible is filled with patience.
Everything in nature, all that surrounds us, demands patience. We are the only things that rush against that, striving to push the hands of the clock somehow faster. But the clock won't move faster. Only we will. Often in circles, confusing movement with progress. There is a time for urgency, but it's not all the time. Wherever we're going, we'll get there. But sometimes the answer to "when?" is "not yet."
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