A post on patience

Today, I had a rather enlightening, although not unusual experience. I had to post some of my study materials home, well 18 lb in weight of study materials to be precise! I carried the parcels to the post office for 9 am and the post office was shut. People came in moaning and trying the door, although you could see it was shut. In fact within 30 seconds of some people arriving they were intensely angry that things weren't going their way. Most stormed off in disgust after demanding information from the other people waiting. My parcels were too heavy to charge too far .. so I resolved that I would stay put and just take my parcels to my meeting if I had too. After 10 minutes the man came out from the office and said that he couldn't open the safe! He was more than a little STRESSED and he said that he would send for reinforcements and hoped the post office would be open in a further ten minutes. Again there was much huffing and puffing and moaning and people having a go at him. On my study I have been told of women walking four hours every day to get water for their children these people couldn't weight ten minutes!

True to his word he started the day and everyone surged to the door. He told them that he would assist the person who had waited the longest first .. me! That didn't go down too well nor did our chat about his day hopefully getting better from this point on as he sorted out my parcels.

Courtesy doesn't cost anything. When someone is doing their best and the problem is out of their control, why let off steam at them? It won't change the situation - the post office will still be closed, the train will still be late. I had used my time in the queue to prepare for my meeting and I turned up prepared and calm and the meeting went well. I wonder how those irate people around me approached the rest of their day?