A few months ago I wrote an entry somewhat different from the rest, in which I tried to show that having children is beautiful, but sometimes it is harder than it seems.
At the end of the post I commented that to carry out the work of father and mother it is advisable to take two or three patients and a reader, mayuga, asked me where I could buy the paciencias.
Well, I think I've found the patient shop although notice that they are not cheap.
I was driving with my car on a rainy day home, back from work, altered by my wife's last call: “What day does it take… If I say A to B, if I say Yes, it says No, if I tell him we are leaving, he says we stay and when we finally stay he asks me to leave”.
"Something we have to do", I replied. While driving, I had ideas to carry out, dialogues to keep with him and new paths to travel. Ten minutes from home the car said it had arrived there. I tried to get it going, but I was moaning like a sick and stubborn old man while showing me that I would not succeed.
I got out of the car, umbrella in hand, with the intention of seeking help, when I came across a luminous arrow-shaped sign that said “Patience Store: at 20 m ”.
I looked in the direction of the arrow and saw, about 30 meters away, a beautiful wooden door with a carved frame that offered the trade a somewhat old look.
Moved by curiosity, and remembering the question of mayuga, I entered her. The squeaking of the door and irregular steps that forced down to a lower floor showed that it did not seem like a business that gave too many benefits.
After the stairs I arrived at an empty room, poorly lit, without shelves of any kind, without posters or prices and whose warmth came from the wood of the floor and the walls. At the end of it I found a counter in which an old man, with a white beard as irregular as the stairs of his tent, watched my steps as I approached him.
-Hello - I said.
-Good afternoon. I guess you want to buy a patience right?
-Umm, yes, but ... How are they? I don't see anything in this store.
-Well, it is that patience is not something you can carry in a bag - he replied.
-Of course - I replied. What did I expect to find, canned patients? - How much does a patience cost?
-I do not know.
-Does not know?
-No, I do not know. Tell me.
- Should I tell her?
-I'm afraid so. I don't know him, I don't know why he needs more patience, I don't know what makes him lose her, nor do I know how long it takes to lose her. I don't know how many things influence your emotional stability or how much dose of patience you might need to balance your situation, so it will be you who tells me, over time, how much your patience costs.
-Can't you buy with money? - I questioned him looking for the easy way.
-Can you buy happiness or joy with money?
-Well, in a way yes - I answered - Isn't money supposed to help you be happy?
-Do not. Money buys things and experiences that can help you be happy for a while, until what you have bought ceases to arouse your interest, but in any case you do not buy happiness, but things that make you feel good when you get them and until He gets tired of them. Now think, what could you buy to help you have more patience?
-I guess nothing.
-Nothing, no. Maybe a trip that will help you disconnect, maybe something to share with those who make you lose patience ... In any case you could not always be traveling or buying gifts for others continuously.
-No, of course not. So how do you pay here?
For a little over two hours we were talking, seller and buyer, about my future purchase and I had to go three more times in later days to end up deciding how much I would pay for my new dose of patience.
I know you are wondering how this ends, how much a patience costs and how it is paid. I cannot answer that, as the seller could not do with me, but I can tell you how much my new patience would cost me and how I would pay it. At the moment I only have a proforma invoice that I detail below.
Proforma invoice: patience for Mr. Armando
Mr. Armando acquires a new patience in exchange for:
- Understand that children are not adults and that their level of requirements and needs are different from ours.
We must take off some years of maturity (not for the one that makes us responsible, but for the one that makes us straight, serious and bitter) to get close to the children and live and enjoy with them. There is nothing sadder than watching the years go by and realize that you grew too much.
My last dialogue with the patient seller
On the last day, after receiving the proforma invoice and reading it, I asked him:
- Does all this cost a patience?
-Well, it doesn't really cost that much. Most likely fulfilling two or three points I already got some patience, although the ideal would be that he fulfilled them all, so he would buy a real patience and he would not have to return in a while.
-I get it. One last question. Selling what you sell, how could it be that you have such a local…?
- So old and not very careful?
-Well, yes ... excuse me, I don't ...
-Quiet, it's normal. Proforma invoices such as the one you take make many, however few people, very few, return to formalize them. I guess it's not easy to step on the brake in life.
-I suppose not…
