“I’d decided somewhere along the way that rather than avoiding difficult people or situations, sometimes it can be better in the long run to face these things head on. I mean, not confrontationally, but not to avoid, as your default reaction, anyone or anything that gives the impression of being a bit of a bother. And the main reason isn’t like standing your ground or anything… it’s more that the annoying things can do you a favour of sorts just through being so annoying, because the next time those bothery bits happens you’ll be just that little bit more prepared. I mean, people, or just things, are always going to come along to upset whatever peaceful moments you might find yourself in sometimes, and I reckon that finding those moments is going to happen less and less if you let people or situations get to you, or if you view it all from the safety of having your head in the sand.
“It’s all got to do with getting a bit more patience together for yourself, to fall back on. There’ve been people that I’ve come across, where there isn’t really a choice, like at a job or in all sorts of situations really, who just need that bit more patience to deal with than others. And I think I’ve been able to get that together over time, although I know people can be difficult to deal with depending on what they’re thinking. But as far as circumstances that aren’t ideal, I’m pretty sure that I could keep my cool under most circumstances. I think that’s one virtue I can notch up, not that I’d want to brag about it.”
No, you wouldn’t want to skite about that too much Benny, because I recall once when you valued this part of your achievements to the detriment of good sense, and your own physical comfort. The particulars at this point are not all that relevant, but there were tickets that were bought and the event was marked (on the wrong day) on the calendar. Come the assumed correct night, there was Benny waiting outside, and waiting and waiting — long after another person would have got to thinking that something was not right about all that waiting. But it was his precious ‘patience’ at work you see, that virtue he was just a little superior about.
And all he had to do was to look at that ticket he had in his pocket and it would have all been cleared up. But no, Benny fell right back on what he thought he had as an advantage over a lot of people, and that perceived virtue of patience become a sort of weirdness for him on that night. The effects of a simple mistake were dragged out and turned into a bigger deal for him than it should have been, simply through the course of an otherwise positive characteristic being changed into a negative by some basic preciousness. He finally realised, but I know Benny must have already started to join the dots as he ended up not telling anyone, and just turned up on the correct night as he would have done otherwise — except that it’s been exposed now, within this exclusive club in here, as I wanted to make sure Benny made the connection.
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