Patience.

Even though I try to practice, it is something I wish I had a lot more of and something I need a lot more of. I do think that I used to be more patient when I was young, but in the last few years, I think I am increasingly less so.

Increasingly less.

That is a funny way to state a decrease, isn't it?

Makes it sound like a positive.

Almost.

But a decrease in patience definitely isn't a positive. The only way it good be seen as such if what is being considered patience, is actually avoidance. I think that happens a lot too and I am definitely guilty of being passive when I should be far more proactive at times. Not making a decision doesn't mean no decisions are made, and not making a decision doesn't protect from consequences of outcomes.

Though at times, patience can be a negative, where it becomes an excuse for not going after something, not rolling the dice or putting the hat in the ring. I am guilty of this a lot throughout my life also, and it has likely had quite significant impacts on my outcomes and possibilities, as rather than going for something, I held back, using various excuses as to why, and then coming out with nothing. Well, not entirely nothing. There is a feeling of missing out on something wanted and perhaps at times, something I felt I deserved.

Bitterness?

As they say, we regret what we didn't do, than what we did, and this might be true for a lot of the the regrets in my life. At the time, I was of course making the decision I thought was correct at the time, but was it because I thought that it was correct, or because I feared making a decision, or going for something I wanted, fearing I wouldn't get it?

For sure.

Patience might be a virtue at times, but when it becomes an excuse that holds us back, what is it then called? A vice? A defect? A sin? Sometimes I think that a lot of the things that are considered virtues, are designed to hold us back, keep us in our place, stop us from achieving what we could.

Stop us from challenging the status quo?

patience (n.)

c. 1200, pacience, "quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering

See how that can be used for control?

It sounds like something that a church might cook up to control the hungry sheep, while those of the church themselves light the candles in the golden candle holders, so they can eat mutton off their golden plates.

"Be patient. Your time will come."

In the next life.

As humans though, we are often in our heads, thinking about the past, the present, and what it might mean for our future. And, it is because of this that our mental states affect us so much, because it affects the decisions we make, our actions, our behaviors, and therefore, our outcomes, whether we are working for ourselves, or interacting with others.

I don't know about patience, but I do think that all the ways we are changing our experience of life through the methods we interact and interface with the world, and with the people within, we are being mentally affected. And in just the last few decades, we have changed a great deal of what we have done for thousands of years prior - things that largely worked. The rapidity of change has well and truly gone past our ability to adapt to the changes at the physical level, and I believe this is going to have largely negative impacts on our mental health.

And when one suffers, we all suffer.

This is the interesting thing about mental health, especially in a world that has encouraged isolation and individualism. Because despite what an individual might believe, they are part of a larger group and their behaviors will of course impact on those around them also. It doesn't have to be some school shooter, or mass murderer that causes the issues - it is at all levels of the environment. A disruptive student in the school room takes away from the rest of the class. A small group of drug addicts in the center of a city, has bearing on the rest of the citizens.

Not to mention the costs of treatment and repair.

We seem to have lost the battle for physical health, as obesity epidemics and illness is being driven even further by monetization of treatment, not cure. We have lost the fight for financial health also, which ties in with the first loss, as the wealth gaps widen and opportunities decrease. And mental health, the main thing that gives us an advantage as a species, is in rapid decline.

Perhaps with what many considered overpopulation, it is all part of the plan. Where a world is created that people just can't survive in, so they won't. The fittest is more than those who have the strongest muscles, it is those who are able to control others fittingly. And their job is far, far easier, when we don't even have the mental strength and fortitude to control ourselves.

I don't know where it will end up, but where it is heading is not really in a good direction in my opinion. But, I guess we will all have to patiently wait and see what the outcome for our society will be. If it keeps going where it is headed, the majority of us will need to be strapped down for our own safety.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]