You can never have too much patience

How much patience! It takes patience. Holy patience. We could go on and on with the list of challenges that patience must go through to assert itself, to be useful, so as not to go to waste.

PATIENCE

There's a part of us, not exactly buried in unconsciousness, but ever-active and hyperactive in the age of technological presentism, that longs to sever any connection between time and the naturalness of life. To the point of climbing over every lime-washed wall dedicated to patience to grasp what we desire as quickly as possible. Now and immediatelyAs if life were a sequence of unrepeatable opportunities, not to be missed, and not instead a path whose evolution is made up of a weaving, sometimes slow, sometimes faster. In an alternation of equal and opposite forces, in which, as he wrote Lace, "Patience is the strength of the weak and impatience is the weakness of the strong.".

VALUE OF PATIENCE

Impatience, if we think about it for a moment with patience (excuse the pun), it's a waste of time, which we are no longer able to control, and also of our feelings, as often, especially if combined with anger, leads us to the worst mistakesOn the contrary, patience and a long stride always help to avoid causing damage.

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IMPORTANCE OF PATIENCE

It takes a lot of patience, every day: achieve a goal, do not get dragged into some fight with a neighbor, a co-worker, a friend who betrays us. But be patient: it is worthwhile, and it helps you live better even if we no longer recognize any value in this virtue, essential as it is in human relationships as in the effectiveness of public action. Rather, we consider it a loss of time and an old relic of behaviors that we cannot affordWe live in the age of high speed, of "everything now," of "disposable": our clocks are always synchronized with upcoming deadlines, commitments to be met, programs to be completed. «And instead, patience requires an expansion of the present, its lengthening, a pause in the incessant becoming. We need to pause, to take a break, to be patient.» writes Gabriella Caramore in a very effective little book entitled precisely Patience (Il Mulino editions).

PATIENCE AS A VALUE TO BE RECOVERED

And yet it's just patience, his long stride, far from the anxiety of presentism, which allows us to wait for the right moment, the maturation of things and not their evaporation, before even having brought them into focus. The courtship of a woman is patient, and cannot be played out in the instant of an exchange of text messages or messages on social media. It is patient to wait for the recognition of one's value at work: on the contrary, excessive haste, for positions in the hierarchical ladder and for salaries, leads to the vice of careerismAnd it is patience, sometimes tiring and even frustrating, to search for what unites us rather than what divides us. «Patience is what in man most closely resembles the process that nature uses in its creations.» writes Honoré de Balzac in his book Lost Illusions. Think about the api, to their patient yet essential community work: in a single day, a single hive visits 225 flowers, a journey equivalent to four times around the planet. And all the activity of bees, the marvelous chain of roles and functions, is expressed in the spirit of patience.

The eclipse of patience is also due to a misunderstanding of its function. It's often confused with inertia, with compromise. Or, worse, it's labeled a defeat, a passive surrender in the face of the inevitability of events. On the contrary,, impatience, perhaps accompanied by anger, becomes a sign of strength, of determination and determination of character. A true misunderstanding, and a reversal of paradigms. With deadly effects, for example, in relationships with our neighborsWe've become a nation of citizens who start a neighborhood brawl every half hour, driven and inspired by that very loss of patience that makes us feel strong, whereas instead we've all become more vulnerable.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PATIENT

In politics, it's impossible to ignore the patience, time, and skill needed to make consensus coincide with choices that aren't always popular. He learned this firsthand when he was at Palazzo Chigi. Matteo Renzi, eager to give substance, with results, to his messages declaimed in dizzying sequence. But sooner or later, when you're in too much of a hurry, you're faced with the need to demonstrate balance and seek new syntheses, especially with your opponents. In the First Republic, perhaps patience was too much, but many crises—in governments, parties, and parliaments—were averted with the magic formula of a "pause for reflection." And during the Second World War, the British public was itching, with enormous discontent, to end a bloody conflict "at any cost": the British government responded with a widespread, house-to-house campaign, inspired precisely by the exercise of patience. The slogan was this: Keep calm and carry on, Keep calm and carry on.

Already stay calm, be patientBut what do you do when the earth shakes beneath your feet and you feel, with fear, that time is passing? Here, more than just a pedagogical exercise, it can help. the religion, the sense of the transcendent with which patience has always been well categorized. In the Buddhist religion, for example, patience is considered one of the six essential practices for being a good disciple and is carefully cultivated through meditation. In a book by the Dalai Lama, entitled The art of being patient (Neri Pozza editions), the highest spiritual authority of Buddhism writes: «Any positive action can be destroyed by a single outburst of anger, by a single gesture of impatience.In the Bible, however, where we discover the greatness of the patriarch Job, patience is classified as a gift of the Holy Spirit. And St. Paul, in a letter to the Romans, warns:Patience leads to hope. But it must be accompanied by humility and reflection.". We must reflect, therefore, to be patient, to take the necessary time, to take a breath before speaking, to listen and not just one-way communication. These are simple exercises, perfect to do during the holidays to take advantage of thesummer as in the right season to rediscover the value of patience.

PATIENCE FAMOUS QUOTES

  St. Francis de Sales

The combination of understanding, love, and patience is equivalent to a state of grace. Almost unattainable, like the happiness. But in the balance between these three ingredients, trust certainly represents the largest portion of the formula.

Buddha

It's true: there's something supernatural about patience. Human instinct, our very nature, pushes us toward speed, away from patience. For those with the gift of faith, patience can also be sought through prayer.

Jean de La Fontaine

The strength and the anger They have an apparent power far superior to that of patience. But it is destructive.

 Eugene Montale

Think about waiting for a love let it happen. Is there anything more exciting?

Molière

More than just a joke, this is a law of nature. It's the patience of the farmer, parallel to that of what grows in his fields, an excellent reference we could draw inspiration from as an antidote to our super-modern times. breathless and present-minded.

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