Empathy begins the process of connecting us with others, as we share their emotions. Our own life experience enables us to understand something of the life experience of others. That emotional understanding is the distinction we call empathy: “. . . the capacity to share the feelings of others . . .” “Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to…
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Value for Thursday of Week 05 in the season of Dormancy
Being Patient
Patience is humility in the dimension of time.
- . . . adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
- Every man must patiently bide his time. He must wait — not in listless idleness but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavors, always willing and fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion comes he may be equal to the occasion. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]
- Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew. [attributed to Francis de Sales]
- How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? [William Shakespeare, “Othello,” Act II, Scene III]
- Let me look upward into the branches of the flowering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. [Wilfred A. Peterson]
- Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily. [variously attributed]
- Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown [Chinese proverb].
- Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow — that is patience. [source unknown]
- The patient man shows much good sense, but the quick-tempered man displays folly at its height. [The Bible, Proverbs 14:29]
“Patience is defined as ‘the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset . . .’” It has been characterized as “a Development Virtue and Common Therapeutic Factor”.
Patience conveys many benefits to the individual, and in relationships. “Patience, willpower, and self-control are terms that are usually used interchangeably in the literature and have been shown to be positively correlated to outcomes later in life.” It facilitates stress tolerance. “A two-year study suggests practicing patience may be critical to finding and pursuing purpose.” Its calming effects increase productivity and effectiveness over time.
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
- The Dalai Lama, Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective (Snow Lion Publications, 1997).
- M.J. Ryan, The Power of Patience: How to Slow the Rush, and Enjoy More Happiness, Success, and Peace of Mind Every Day (Crown Archetype, 2003).
- Paul Roberts, The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification (Bloomsbury, 2014): “Paul Roberts thinks a society that wants it now is untenable, and he has written a prophecy to tell us why.”
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning and evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure. In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. “To grow and grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree—“that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the world!” [Hans Christian Andersen, “The Fir Tree” (1844).]
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Conductor Bernard Haitink was known as “a patient musician”, who allowed the music to flow on its own terms. In an interview, he said: “I have a great admiration and the greatest respect for the music as it is composed, and I think this every time. It is like a beautiful flower which unfolds itself.” One critic noted that “Haitink’s consistently patient approach brings its own rewards.” Here he is in interview, and in an interview for Conductors' Guild. Here he is conducting Bruckner’s 9th Symphony in 2015. He made more than 450 recordings, many of which can be found on YouTube.
Jan Dismas Zelenka, Capriccios (recordings) are sweet, gentle, unhurried chamber works from the Baroque era.
- Capriccio No. 1 in D Major, ZWV182 (1717) (approx. 15’)
- Capriccio No. 2 in G Major, ZWV183 (1717) (approx. 12’)
- Capriccio No. 3 in F Major, ZWV184 (1717) (approx. 16’) (recordings)
- Capriccio No. 4 in A Major, ZWV185 (1717) (approx. 21’)
- Capriccio No. 5 in G Major, ZWV190 (1729) (approx. 16-17’)
Other compositions:
- Mariella Cassar-Cordina, Waiting (approx. 7’)
Albums:
- Megumi Yonezawa, Masa Kamaguchi & Ken Kobayashi, “Boundary” (2018) (67’): “Throughout the recording, the group operates with exquisite patience, pushing the music forward with tender consideration, primarily driven by Yonezawa’s unsentimental lyricism and effective use of space . . .”
- Enrico Pieranunzi & Jasper Somsen, “Voyage in Time” (2022) (39’): in an interview about the album, Pieranunzi focused on the common ground between classical and jazz but his and Somsen’s easy-going, gentle playing conveys their patient approach to the collaboration.
- JoVia Armstrong, “Inception” (2023) (40’): “The relationship between music and time has served human form symbiotically for millennia. Indigenous cultures developed an impenetrable bond with sound made by the interplay of humanity with nature. In the essence of the gum from the acacia tree, we have extracted sound from its nucleus and applied it to our subjective interpretations of sonic expression.” [Armstrong]
Compositions and albums on time itself:
- Aros Guitar Duo, “In Time” (2024) (58’): “. . . In Time, from which the disc takes its title, finds two guitarists playing the same two pages of music over and over, much as one encounters Spring every year as the same season, though it changes in some way every time. Here, Zwicki asks for each repetition to be slower than the previous one, while fragments of the disc’s foundational melody come in and out of focus. Eventually (‘in time ...’), only single notes are left, in echo; and finally, the melody itself is “lost in time.” While the piece, highly atmospheric and beautiful, is about time, it often hovers as if it is supra-temporal.”
- Andy Milne & Unison, “Time Will Tell” (2024) (59’): “Opting for variety under a post-bop umbrella with a special eclectic touch, Milne explores colorful frameworks where the voices of his bandmates become an extension of his own clear and accurate compositional delineations.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- The Supremes, “You Can’t Hurry Love” (lyrics)
- Guns N’ Roses, “Patience” (lyrics)
- Take That, “Patience” (lyrics)
- Nawang Khechog, “The Power of Morality and Patience”
Visual Arts
- Balthus, Patience (1955)
- Georges Braque, La Patience (The Patience) (1942)
Film and Stage
- Sense and Sensibility: if we can accept the premise of Victorian sensibilities about pre-marital commitment [they had mastered (perpetually?) delayed gratification], this story contains a tear-jerking vision of patience, a feminine version of the denouement in Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.
- The Patience Stone: a Afghani woman tends in virtual solitude to her wounded and comatose husband
- Whisky Galore! (Tight Little Island), a droll treatment of delayed gratification
