those who wait

“Good things come to those who wait.”

….

Heard that one?  IT is also sometimes written with even wider scope as “ALL good things come to those who wait.”

….

It is commonly attributed to the Bible.  I’ve just searched a few biblical sites carefully and it is NOT in there.  Therefore no one can accuse me of heresy when, in the words of John Keating, I reply: “… excrement.”

Have you seen Walk The Line, the biography of Johnny Cash?  Actually, I’m not particularly fond of Johnny Cash, my main awareness of him is as a character on Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, which will make die-hard fans cringe.  But anyways, this rant is not about Cash, it is about June Carter.  In one scene, June is asking the tough questions about how a thing is to be accomplished, what steps will lead to it, what obstacles can they expect and Johnny is trying to placate her….

… he tells her: … “…June… That stuff will just work itself out….” .

She replies: “No, it does NOT work itself out.  People work it out FOR you, and you THINK it works itself out.”

  I DO like spunk.

So…. go ahead: wait for the good things to happen! Wait for the right moment to appear and strike you like an epiphany…. wait for the right person to save you from your life…. wait for the right moment to quit the job you hate, to sell the house that is killing you, to talk to your kid about sex and drugs.  Wait for the perfect job to be offered to you, wait for the school to give your kid That Talk, wait for someone else to say: “you look unhappy, we should do something about that.”  But I won’t.

I don’t believe the right moment exists…. YET.  I think it can exist, I think it gets called into existence by what I do.

Maybe I am deluding myself: in a universe of infinite possibilities, that cannot be discounted.  But I don’t think so.  I have a good deal of evidence garnered. 

A little waiting may be good, but alot of it will poison you.  While we are waiting, other things are moving…. and if the moment chooses you, instead of you choosing it, you may not be very happy with the consequences.  “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”… and a moment that you chose yourself, worked for, prepared for, is way better than the perhaps perfect moment that may be waiting in a nebulous and ever-changing future.

Actually, let me paraphrase myself here:  “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”… and a circumstance that you chose yourself, worked for, prepared for, is way better than the perhaps perfect circumstance that may be waiting in a nebulous and ever-changing future.

Abe Lincoln said it best: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

Duuuuuuuuuuude!!! 

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