Today I read an article on my way home called "Patience is a virtue that the internet denies the young" by Lucy Tobin. This got me thinking back to when I was a child, hearing the words I heard countless times from my father as he said "don't do that! be patient...". Often as he stood over me as I bashed something in frustration, as it wasn't working properly, or I couldn't fix something I had broken earlier. Thinking more about it, having patience definitely has helped me working in such a stressful environment. But I did start to wonder, is patience really a virtue?
By definition; a virtue is a behaviour showing high moral standards. So if patiences really is a virtue then that must mean impatience is a vice?? Is "not wanting to wait" for something really immoral? or a weakness in character? So could it be argued that impatience can be as much of a virtue than its antonym.
In today's culture nothing can be fast enough, computers, phones, broadband speeds all constantly evolving to give us what we want, as quickly as possible. After all life is too short! isn't it? I mean if we didn't have the urge to get the information we need/want as quickly as possible, would we still be the thriving society we are today? Maybe, maybe not. I guess that will remain one of life's unanswered questions.
I'm sure that we can all name instances where patience really is for the better. For instance, I'm sure you'll all agree that patience is definitely a quality that a surgeon should possess. But what about impatience? Surely impatience has done good in the past? So my challenge to you is to think of one instance where this is true, and post a comment below. Lets see if we can form a valid argument to convince the world that impatience can = progress!
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