Patience, I have it.
A famous author was asked what it takes to write a great novel. He replied: Patience. Who was this plain-spoken writer? The hell if I know. I just made it up. Don’t be too upset; I am trying to make a point: Patience is essential when writing a book, painting a picture, or cooking a turkey—unless you are the turkey.
Things take time, some things more than others. Did the Druids exert an inordinate amount of patience when they transported enormous granite blocks from Piccadilly Circus all the way to Stonehenge with nothing at their disposal but black magic and mystery dust? You bet they did. Plus, they were completely nuts and had no concept of time—which helped tremendously. However, they were often late for dinner.
What were we talking about? Fear not, I remember. Patience.
Patience. The virtue that kicks all the other virtues in their collective ass. Oh yeah, don’t even think of messing with patience. It has all the time in the world. Meanwhile, our gnat-like attention spans need to move on to the next thing, and God only knows what follows beyond that.
How about we sail onwards, past patience, and talk about something else? Like one of those South Pacific atolls, the Navy bypassed on their cruise to Tokyo during WW2. I understand there may be Japanese soldiers still hunkered on those islands, patiently lying in perpetual wait for the Marines to storm the beachhead. I would reference the Gilligan’s Island episode where I first witnessed this historical fact, but it was in black and white. And to be honest, I am a little skeptical about the veracity of that particular episode. By the way, the Skipper had very little patience, wouldn’t you say? I know Gilligan would.
So, we have gone from stoned Druids to Gilligan. It takes a lot of patience to write annoying blather like this. Yet here you are, reading onwards with the vain hope that you will eventually stumble upon a greater meaning. Forging ahead like the proverbial Stanley in search of your Livingstone: word after useless word, slashing through the bad grammar, trudging through swamps of messy syntax, fighting off the cannibalistic tribes of prepositional phrases, and well, you get the idea.
So, what is the point? After reading all these words, stuck end-to-end, in a blatant attempt at meeting a minimal word count for a decent blog post, you still need to ask? Yes, I suppose you do. Ok, here it goes: Patience is as patience does.
No, that is not it. Sorry. Here it is for real this time. Cue the drum roll: da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Patience is writing an epic science fiction trilogy, illustrating cover art, endless hours of research, editing, and re-editing chapter after chapter, with the ultimate goal of entertaining an audience starving for something fresh, new, and different.
Now put down that remote, grab the kids, and head to the nearest bookseller of your choice and ask for a copy of The Golden Ellipse. Or if you prefer, do it online, like everything else is accomplished these days.
Patience, I have it. So did Job, but I digress? Ironically, a guy named Jobs did not, from what I understand …
