Patience was Once a Virtue

It is a noticable fact that we writers are a pretty impatient bunch. Maybe we always have been, waiting for our manuscripts to be read in the past, hanging on the postman's knock, ripping open letters of acceptance or rejection.

Today, well, we send a post to our favorite platform, in seconds there it is and we then start looking at the AdSense clock to see how many clicks we have, how much each click was worth and God forbid there is a hiccup in the system.

Then we are on the techies like a pack of ravenous wolves. Why are we not getting feedback? Why is my click rate not being measured? I need to know how many views I had in the last five minutes.

OK people. Relax, so we have technical problems. We are not in a life and death situation right at this minute, unless the stress is giving us a heart attack. Call 911 someone. Writer down!

The speed of our world as online writers has meant that we have become used to almost instant gratification. Gone are the long waits as a letter moved from place to place. Please, every letter today seems to have a tracking number included. I can see the instant it arrives at my local post office and almost tell if Charlie the mail man stopped at Starbucks for his frappacino, iced, low fat mocha latte.

We need patience back in our lives. Take a deep breath when things stall, think nice thoughts about the view outside your window.

You know having not checked your stats for the last ten minutes might be good. You might have a movement in your views instead of a single viewer, who bounces out of your article on the invention of vulcanized rubber because it was not the kind of rubber item he had in mind.

Yes folks I am in a contemplative and somewhat flippant mood today. It's summer, the sun is burning down and I just want to rest easy, by a cool lake and enjoy good company over dinner. Not stress myself into the emergency room.

Patirnce should be a virtue again.