Pray For Patience

Patient:  Bearing enduring pain, trouble, etc. without complaining, losing self-control, making a disturbance, etc.

I like the fact that The Program teaches me important stuff by asking me to do some work.  Sometimes I learn by enduring something unpleasant.  Sometimes I have to wait for something I want and sometimes that thing never comes.  I see the growth in this kind of behavior later on - it doesn't occur to me to be grateful when I'm not getting something I want but don't need.  I have had to learn to be patient; patience is a quality against which I rebel with every fiber of my being.  The phrase "Pray for patience and god puts me in long lines" comes to mind as does "Pray for tolerance and god puts intolerable  people into my life."  This is why I'm not big on praying for things.  I get asked to do things I have no interest in doing.

"Do you want to be more tolerant?" my sponsor asked me.

"OK," I said, warily.  There's always a price to pay with that SOB.

"You know how when you're driving into a construction zone and a sign warns that the left lane is going to be blocked and that you should merge to the right so you queue up on the right then watch some of the Special People fly by on the left and then force themselves into the queue of waiting cars at the last minute?" he said.

"I hate those people so much," I replied.  "Usually I tailgate the guy in front of me to do everything I can to force the bastards off the road."

"Just let 'em in," he said.  "They're going to get in anyway."

"No #$!! way," I commented.

"So you're going to risk having an accident with your car to try to deny this Special Person a spot in the queue when he's going to get in anyway?  And where is it that you have to be in such a hurry?" he pointed out.

SOB is too mild a word for this guy.  I cleaned up his nickname for any children who might be in the room.  He would have been right at home in a Medieval torture dungeon.  He would have worked the rack or carried that big iron ball with all the spikes sticking out of it. 

He continued the onslaught.  "And you know that guy at the meeting that you can't stand?"

"Which one?" I thought but wisely didn't say, figuring this would only encourage him to keep talking.  He knows I don't like anyone so he probably didn't have any specific guy in mind.  He was setting up the pins to make a point that I didn't want to hear.

"I want you to sit next to him every time you see him for the next 3 months," he said.  "Ask him how he's doing."

Why do I call this man?