I have issues with being patient. For certain aspects of my life I really can’t stand waiting. But then for other things it’s no big deal.
For example, I like waiting for Christmas. I like the anticipation, I like celebrating on Christmas. I was never one of those kids who tried to find/open my presents early (I guess the modern equivalent would be seeing what’s been bought off my Amazon Wish List…). To me waiting until Christmas Day to open presents was part of what made the day special. So waiting for the right time to enjoy or celebrate is no problem.
But for other things in life I have significantly less patience. I hate being told by a doctor “we will call you in 3-5 days with your test results” when I KNOW that said results could be obtain in less than an hour. Or waiting around for someone who is late because they couldn’t stop reading a book, or watching TV, or playing a computer game. It bugs me. My patience runs thin.
So I was intrigued by some comments about patience and self-restraint I read recently in Barbara Kingsolver’s popular new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This is a fantastic book that chronicles a family’s year of trying to eat locally, seasonally, and sustainably. I can’t quote the exact passage since I immediately lent my copy to a friend, but she addresses the issue of patience in regards to our food choices. She writes (as a mother of two) about how parents often encourage their children to restrain from having sex until the timing is right (marriage…). But she asks how our children can respect our insistence on self-restraint if we can’t even manage to restrain ourselves to buying food in season. Instead of waiting for the right time to harvest and eat a tomato, we demand on satisfying our hunger whenever the urge strikes. Our promiscuous ways lead us to the grocery story where pale refrigerated shadows of tomato are available stripped of antioxidants and nutrients all year round thanks to the gallons of oil that were consumed to ship it hundreds (or thousands) of miles in refrigerated crates. We don’t think twice about the instant gratification of our appetites generally, so who are we to insist that our children buy into a value we have discarded?
So a tomato may be an easy example for me. I hated the things until I tasted the heirloom varieties delivered in my CSA box one year. I can wait for the real deal to appear in late summer and am not tempted by the reddish tinged impostor in the supermarket, but her point is well taken. Sure I froze and dried some veggies from my garden this past harvest, but not near enough to get us through the winter. I just assume that I can get whatever I want to eat whenever I want it at the store. Like all other consumers I am willing to give up taste, and nutritional value for easy access. I rarely stop to think that anything I am buying in the Winter months (and most everything during the rest of the year) was grown someplace far far away and shipped long distances to get to me (at taxpayers expense btw). Waiting, patience, and self-restraint are ignored as my need for convenient instant gratification gives sustainability the finger.
Honestly, sitting here in snow-blanketed Illinois in the middle of December there isn’t much I can do. I can buy organic and at least reduce the negative impact my food choices have. And I can plan ahead for the future. I’m not going to move to a farm in Appalachia and raise my own turkeys, but there are ways I can sidestep our broken food system and live more responsibly. But it is something that will take time and effort. And a lot of patience.