The Irish Patience

Lately, the old saying "patience is a virtue" is on my mind. Mostly because I've realized that many of us Americans have little patience. We want it all, and we want it right away, conveniently as possible. Why are we such an impatient society? The secret lies in Ireland: all the patience in the world lives in the hearts of the Irish. How can those of us Americans have any patience when the Irish are born with enough of the virtue to last the world twice over?

Here's just a few recent examples to prove my theory:

Yesterday, I was standing in the airport queue (line) waiting to check in. Like a typical American, I was on my cell phone, talking to someone about work, distracted and shuffling my bags as I moved closer to the front of the line. When it was my turn to check in, I had no idea: head turned, still talking. No one tapped me on the shoulder. The airline agent did not yell, "Next!" The people behind me did not say a word. They all just waited. Patiently.

That night, our door buzzer rang around 10:15 p.m. (Guests have to ring us from a locked door downstairs and then be buzzed in.) Damon said it was probably a wrong number and don't answer it. A few minutes later, it rang again. We didn't answer it. Then it rang again a few minutes later. This time, I answered it. It was, of all things, the UPS driver. He rang us 3-4 times over a 10-minute period, and never left. Just waited until we finally answered. He apologized for making deliveries so late but said it's really the only time people are home to accept packages.

Last week, Damon and I went to the Salthill Post to ship some Christmas goodies back to the States. We arrived about 5 minutes before closing, and there were five customers inside the Post office at closing time. A postal worker turned off the lights immediately and locked the door, so no additional customers could walk in. The three other customers were finished mailing their items before we were and walked to the door. Though I wasn't paying attention at the time, I realized when we were ready to leave and the worker came out from behind the till (cash register) to unlock the door for us, all the other customers had been standing in the dark at the door, quiet as church mice, locked inside a closed business. Not a peep. The level of patience in Irish society then became fascinating to us.

Damon also comments regularly about funny situations with Irish drivers on his daily commute: how he's yet to see an aggressive driver, and the Irish seem to yield to everyone and everything. He's always the first to make a move at the roundabouts. He just heard someone honk their horn in traffic for the first time this week. We've been here more than 3 months. There's a lot of traffic here in this congested town of 70,000 with lots of commuter communities on top of that population number. Can you imagine a city road or crowded parking lot anywhere in America without car horns blaring?

Maybe they have so much patience because the author of the famous proverb about this valuable character trait has been traced back to the 'Piers Plowman' (1377) by William Langland, an Englishman. When the book was published, many parts of Ireland were again controlled by the English, or at least in the midst of the Irish lords submitting to the English, after Richard II became King in 1377. "Patience is a virtue" has its roots not far from here, and it surprisingly hasn't been a lost after more than 600 years.