A word can have a completely different meaning when placed in a different context. Take the word patience in the two examples below:
Fun Fridays – May 10, 2024
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
Books That Change Lives
Patience is as patience does,
working that one might be great,
but patient’s what I never was
because I would not deign to wait
for the benison of days
that would brightly hone my art,
and with high quality amaze
the writing group of which I’m part.
Instead, each poem’s an advert jingle,
penned in haste and posted quick,
pushed out the door half-dressed to mingle
with the profound and the slick,
valued only in context
while I go on to write the next.
When the good Lord was preparing me to burst out of the womb, He began to bestow my gifts and talents. I was overjoyed. But when he offered me patience, I politely declined.” Why? I thought it had something to do with hospitals, so I said, “No, thank you.”
Good one!
On the ranch I managed in South Texas, it was 10 1/2 miles to the mailbox. We had no neighbors. We planned trips to town to save time and resources. My wife was not thrilled living in such isolation. Her patience for fellowship with family and friends occasionally wore thin, but she now looks back on the time as one of fulfillment. When the helicopter and ground crews would come to harvest Nilgai, she would bake muffins for everyone and deliver them with a special greeting and note of appreciation; the men always looked forward to returning. When contractors of day-help cowboys were hired, she would cook meals and encourage them to share family stories. When game wardens, Border Patrol agents, and county law enforcement officers came on the ranch, they were always eager to visit with her–sometimes they shared with her things they had neglected to tell me. The owner and his wife would sit around the back patio and talk about raising kids. And she now admits that some of the best times we had with our own children, grandchildren, and family were on that isolated South Texas ranch. The time(s) we “endure” with patience may become the times we are impatient to relive.
Second comment. The picture of the dog reminded me of the saying, “A mule will wait 20 years for the chance to kick his master.”
Long suffering, forbearing, restrained, resigned and submissive all under the illusion of patience…..