When I was learning the lithography trade, I learned that it was important to take time to make things fit together and to create good cast lead images. If I hurried in the process, problems arose and in more than one instance, speed brought problems, and the steps and the castings had to be repeated. It was a valuable lesson to learn to be patient and take my time.
Similarly, the old saying “measure twice and cut once” in woodworking is a word of caution. We had to put some baseboards up into a closet that had never had them as we repainted our home this past month. And I didn’t pay enough attention to a miter cut I was making, and the piece was cut incorrectly. A little patience and taking more time to make the cut would have saved throwing away the piece.
After I retired, one of the hobbies that I began was baking bread. Many years ago, we had received a bread maker as a Christmas gift, and it had been used a couple of times and stored safely away in our basement. I resurrected it and began making bread. It was okay, but not great. Google provided me with recipes for yeast created breads and over time, I have tried many. Perhaps the healthiest bread is a combination, oatmeal, whole wheat, rye, flax seed with bread flour and molasses. From start to finish, baking yeast bread takes less than four hours.
This past Christmas, my wife chose to challenge me to baking sour dough bread. It came with some starter granules and instructions. It took over a week to acquire enough starter to bake the first loaf. And from start to hot bread out of the oven another twenty-six hours. Every ingredient must be weighed. You can’t speed the process up. There are no short-cuts. You start a loaf one day and it comes hot out of the oven the following day.
Our cell phones can provide us with instant information. We don’t have to wait. Chat-GPT can create a column almost instantly drawing on information from around the world. There is no appreciation for time spent creating something like a piece of furniture, or even a loaf of sourdough bread. We have become the instant society. We are angered while we are put on hold seeking support over the phone. Technology has removed our patience.
When we plant our gardens later this year, when we put the seeds in the ground, we don’t expect an instant crop of beans, or tomatoes. We wait for the sprouts to break through the surface and then lovingly care for the plants with watering and fertilizer. And in mid-summer our patience is rewarded with fresh vegetables and berries.
Our patience has paid dividends.
