Disclaimer
First, these are my personal musings; this is not a treatise on the history of how patience has been perceived through time. There are, I am sure, great philosophers who have dedicated years of their lives to the study and pursuit of patience in its many and varied forms. This entry is more of a diary than an article and, as such, should not be taken to be more than it is.
What Is It?
Patience is a difficult thing to pin down. It is the state of waiting for something, being aware of the wait, and being comfortable with that wait. It is the repression of yearning for a social calling to appear calm, collected, and unfazed by an irritant. It is, at its heart, the art of seeming unaffected by things despite their presence or the desire to act on them.
Patience, however, is also an ideal and a necessary function of society, at least as society is presented in the modern context. If one person has a chocolate bar and another wants it, patience keeps the two sitting politely beside each other. Patience keeps the peace when otherwise anger would reign or impulses would be followed. It helps in the formation of rational thoughts and complicated plans of action.
Why Is It Bad?
Well, patience is one of the many core ideals linked to the repression of instincts and thoughts. Just like censorship and the like are good (in terms of self-control) and bad (in the sense that censoring what is seen degrades the abilities linked with self-control), patience in too great of abundance can be a mentally hazardous thing. By way of example, let us visit the idea of instinct. Humans have been proven to have instincts, to know from smell or look or feeling any number of things that the rational mind dismisses. Patience, when applied to a scenario in which instinct would be better suited, can be downright dangerous. If a man and a woman decide to go home together after a date (or man and man or woman and woman or three of one and two of another or whatever permutation best applies) and the woman changes when she reaches her home, begins moving in a different way, perhaps her eyes flit a bit more or she stares and her movements are more still, the creed of patience would encourage rational analysis of the presented data coupled with, and this is important, a propensity to remain in the situation longer to see if things simply change. Patience with another person's
idiosyncrasies is a key feature of social interactions. But an impatient person might well just blurt out a question or politely come up with a reason to leave, thus avoiding a potentially hazardous scenario.
The other trick is a social tic. Patient people will usually be there for the flood of emotions others share, but they are not always able to induce a sharing of emotions. It takes an impatient person making obtuse inquiries bluntly to achieve that result on a regular basis.
What Does This Mean for Borehole Bazaar?
Borehole Bazaar is dear to my heart. It means more than words can possibly describe, despite being nothing more than words and a pretty cover. It is precious.
That said, my instincts tell me not to trust InkShares as a company. It has been a year. The only word on progress toward finding a line editor for the text has been some slight optimism from one very chipper employee and my own desire for things to be all right. Rational thought also insists that simply refunding the money is not wise, either, as accounts may have changed and I perpetually hang one email confirmation away from beginning the process. I think, if I were not caught up in the day to day struggles of life, that I would be looking to find a traditional publisher for this work. I wish that three people who became "mercenaries," that is to say, who ordered 3 or more books, had not done so. Had I known what I was getting into via only procuring 250 pre-orders, I would not have done it.
When patience has been exercised to the point where the repression of instinct and impulse has built nearly explosive pressure, a new course must be charted. I know that very few (if any) folks read these infrequent blog updates, but this is my resolution:
I will wait until the exact 1-year mark from my manuscript being sent and received. At that juncture, I will begin a campaign to attract interest in Borehole Bazaar again and begin requesting that strangers send emails asking InkShares directly for greater alacrity (or even more news) regarding Borehole Bazaar's release date.
Why is a Lack of Patience Dangerous?
The problem with this resolution, of course, is that it could backfire. Too much negative publicity could mean that InkShares simply refunds all the cash and bans me from their site for life. This would be problematic as the publishing community is actually rather small; books are not the powerhouses of entertainment that once they were. This means that burning bridges often catch fire to adjacent or otherwise untouched bridges. One thing leads ever to another until, in the end, a name cannot be used in the industry ever again.
The current social contract requires that patience be seen as a virtue, that reactive or impulsive actions be avoided at all costs. This is not a universal thought, but it is the accepted one in San Francisco. It is a thought that ruled me for most of my childhood. Therefore, it is only with difficulty and a lack of finesse that impulses or instincts are followed. As said by Shell Silverstein once, though "Shoulda, Coulda, and Woulda / All ran away and hid / From the little word that Did." Whether I should be that little word or not is entirely debateable. As always, though, I encourage any comments that might exist on this issue.
