On Being Late — Are you always late, obsessively early or anal to be punctual ?
If time is a continuum why worry about being late? Some of us are chronically late and some are obsessively early and others are anal about being punctual. Why so? Imagine all the conflicts that happen as we have to deal with these personalities at home and at work, within our families and amongst our friends and co-workers.
Why do we all have a different sense of time? Is it because we all plan our days so badly or because some of us are chronically lazy? Is it because some of us are so worried about being late for our plane, our train or our show that we would rather be early so we can worry less. Or is it because some of us are so carefree that we don’t care.
Imagine going on a vacation with our kids. We are up early to maximize the time we spend enjoying our trip to paradise (that we spent mega bucks for) but find that our kids and/or our spouse are still blissfully snoring. We wait patiently for a while making coffee , going for a walk outside, getting things ready for breakfast, etc. We have checked our watch umpteen times and then we start getting annoyed for no one is yet stirring.
Every household has at least one child who is perennially late (like Late Kate in the childhood tale from Radiant Reader, in elementary school). They sleep through their alarms are slow in all their morning chores. We are trying to get them to school on time but they are least bothered. They have not packed their bags at night, they spend hours getting dressed up, are slow at eating their breakfast. I am sure there are several moms and dads amongst us who have been through this and have been at their wit’s end for years.
Then there are those who like to be early. They pack their bags two days before their flight, or would rather get to the airport even before it opens, or show up at the theater even before the actor’s bus arrives. They would rather be bored and wait rather than risk being late. Its almost as if they dreamt of what could happen if they are late and are making the extra effort to eliminate that possibility.
Then there are those who like to be punctual. If you call them home for dinner they will ask, what time? If you say 6 pm for most people will show up an hour later, they will ring your bell at 5.59 pm. They like to be on time. Their DNA requires them to be on time. What happened in their home before the family left I can only imagine.
Now if we accept that there are these different types of people how do we adjust and accommodate. Perhaps you should ask your psychologist for I know of no easy way.
But let’s consider this continuum that is time and see if any of this real matters. We all have one life ( not nine like a cat ) so why not just live it the way we want with no time constraints. Why the urgency ? Why not just do things at our own pace? Why hurry? We have all heard the tale of the tortoise that was slow and steady and yet won the race. If our body clocks are different let’s admit it and accept that others have their clocks too. Imagine if we can accept when we are in a group that it’s not our preference that dictates but the equilibrium of the collective group. We could eliminate a lot of our daily conflicts and actually make all our lives more exciting.
