The whole is more than the sum of its parts: Does patience pay?

The whole is more than the sum of its parts: Does patience pay?

Ashley D. Mwanza

Patience has always been something that most of us find hard to adhere to. I can confess that more often than not I have not always been a patient person; in fact I still struggle with this at times. When our goals are defined, who wants to wait? More so if we are promised something especially by our friends, parents, elders, politicians and or governments. But the truth is that I have learned the importance of patience to a good end, and believe this is one of the factors that will help get us to our desired end.

What does it take for an individual human being to be a good person? The world is forever changing, according to Barack Obama, “the world is changing and so we should change with it.” These are words that can be misconstrued by most people, but Mr. Obama simply meant that we have to be vigilant, be as cunning as foxes. We have been misled, abused, oppressed and so we have to be on guard and not be wedged again. If we ignore what has happened then it is more likely than not going to be repeated. But again in all this we have to be patient. Results do not come overnight.

People are not ready to go through a process to become a great or to achieve their goals. Life and its goals are like a sport. A lot of preparation and training takes place in the background before the athlete begins to experience great results. A lot ought to be done before we can see our results. Most people want to become Tiger Woods overnight, forgetting that Tiger Woods started playing golf as a child, and that he had to put in a lot of hours developing his skill. He also had to train his mind and discipline himself. We have to make a lot of sacrifices in terms of the time spent building and also in terms of disciplining ourselves.

In some circumstances we have no choice no matter how cunning we are. If you stand your ground and speak out against a dictatorship, that could cost you your life, but together we can overcome. We ought to stand up and be counted. We put leaders in place, we trusted the governments but they have failed us, the financial world is now in turmoil and more so democracy in most of the developing world is a mockery to the human being and more so to those who invented the system.

During the last days, weeks, months and years we have been working our way through the difficult and controversial life that has become a part of us all. We have had to wrestle with the issues of human responsibility. I know this has been a difficult time for you. It has been equally draining for me. I have spent many hours before God asking, “Lord, why it is that we have to suffer?” This process has stretched me and I still wonder when all this suffering will come to an end.

I haven’t found the answers to all the complexities raised by this situation in the World today. This passage has been debated by much greater minds than mine through the years. To think that I have it figured out would be the height of arrogance. Today I learned something. Good things are all around us. I think people don't realize that because they can't accept it. You only accept what you think you deserve, whether it be happiness, or love. And the way I see it, there's only one way from here, onwards-upwards. But to go up we ought to start from somewhere.

Patience? Yes, only having patience it’s possible to overcome all hardships and difficulties. Because of impatience even easy burdens become unbearable. But situations such as that in the UK can be an exception. Patience has been displayed by the people of Zimbabwe in the undesirable situation they find themselves in. Some of these misfortunes have happened by God’s will, some - because of the human beings’ fault, and some - because of someone’s will or as the result of someone’s carelessness and imprudence. Impatience is displayed when people get angry with the person giving pain and sorrow. Yes, this is where most Zimbabweans find themselves today. But impatience could just be the crux of the problem before us all. And so as human beings we do get angry but that is when we must have patience and must endure. Yes, it is not easy but at the same time not difficult.

Thinking of the Irish situation, the government last year went on record to say they were well in control of the economy, but it wasn’t long before the wheels almost fell off. Ireland became the first Euro zone country to officially enter into recession. And now the citizens are very impatient as could be noticed with the series of demonstrations, that rocked the country and the coalition government. Irish citizens find themselves impatient, certainly who wouldn’t after promises by the ‘overseers’? Crossing over to the UK all is not well and the populace is growing ever impatient with the Labour government, the great betrayal, is how it can be summed up. The US citizens have practised great patience even though they do question some decisions, it may well pay-off, such is the art of patience. Mozambique’s populace suffered for a long time but it is starting to pay-off. "Our country has been sick in many ways since independence" said Joachim Chissano in 2001 when he was still the president of Mozambique, and since then the country has improved, he did not shy away from the truth, as most leaders tend to do to spruce up their images.

Mozambique has just emerged from 16 years of a civil war in which one million people died. She was, and still is, one of Africa's great hopes. Peace in this land, achieved after two years of negotiations in Rome, pursued with imagination and patience by the Community of Sant'Egidio, with the collaboration of the Italian Foreign Ministry and Government, represents something unique for the continent and a model for others.

But why is patience important to the world? Patience calms down the ungovernable, unrestrained passion of anger. So, we true peace loving citizens of the world should be the servants of patience in order to get rid of anger, as whoever is the servant of patience manages to suppress all passions. There is no best treatment for serious illnesses than patience. Zimbabwe is seriously ill and only patience will make it well again. All medications and physicians’ recommendations will be worthless if the patient has no patience.

There are some things, such as salt, oil, meat, wine etc., in case of absence of which the human being continues to live. There are also some things, such as the air, warmth, bread, water, etc., which are vitally important for the human being. In the same way, when in the human being there is the lack of some virtues, such as wisdom, courage, generosity, etc., he/she won’t be perfect, and who can’t endure, can’t live a life befitting the perfect human being. We are not perfect but we can try.

Always remember that life is not difficult but it’s just not easy… Once we define something as being difficult we might have just drawn the line as to how far we can go, but as life is not easy at least we know we can keep on fighting….. It may not be today, but tomorrow we will be happy.