Imagine

The other day we were discussing "patience" and how little we have it. I was reminded of this incident between me and my little brother - who ain't so little anymore, but he will forever be, much to his chagrin, my little brother.

He must've been about 9 or 10 years old at the time, which must've made me 19-20. He came to me and asked if I knew how to dub tape from tape, because he wanted to make a mix tape. Of course. So I sat there in front of our stereo and he sat next to me. I started to put one tape in one deck, cued that one, and put the empty one in the other, started the one and pressed the record and play button at the same time on the other, etc. etc. - you remember how to do that, right? And there was even that function of speeding up the recording so you hear the vocals like they are chipmunks. Man, thank goodness we now have iTunes. Click, drag, done. Anyway, I don't remember what he did or said but I started to think that this whole thing was taking too long. Why is he not getting it? Why isn't this easy for him? Just cue it up right! Come on! I must've raised my voice a bunch of times, complete with loud sighs and grunts.

Finally he got to the point where he could manage, so I expediently left the room. He spent some time there, pushing buttons, putting tapes in, picking songs.

Later that day or maybe it was the next day, I discovered a tape nearby. On the label it read: "My First Mix Tape."

My heart sank. I felt like such a jerk for losing patience (or maybe for not having it in the first place). There he was, on his first mixed tape project, and I was a jerk to my little brother. The worst part is, I don't think I ever apologized to him. I smiled to myself - out of guilt, but there was pride too. He made his first mix tape.

Yesterday someone said that it takes imagination to have patience. Imagine yourself in that person's shoes. Where has he been, what does he believe, who does he respect, what does he like - that might actually help you be more patient toward him.

So, imagine yourself as a ten-year-old, trying to learn how to dub tape.