Sunday, July 24, 2011

How to be jolly

"I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them."
           -- E. V. Lucas

Isn't that true? They are jolly, having fun... sometimes with a quick "apology" to those who've been waiting, but completely oblivious to their perceived rudeness, and therefore much happier. 

An old friend of mine (hi Sven) who is just like that, called me on late Friday afternoon years ago. We were a group who were often making the Art and Music segment of a radio show, early Friday evenings. He said that he was scheduled to run the show that evening, but he had coughing fits (though I never heard one), and could I take it instead? I said it was inconvenient because I was making a painting and I was much into it, and it was very late notice, in fact hardly any at all. 

But he was insistent, and I said that if he could find somebody to interview me (that always works fine, whereas if I do a show alone, I lose the energy), I would do it. 
So he came and drove me to the station, and wanted to say goodbye at the door. He said he had found a replacement for the technician, and the present technician, John, would interview me, and it'd all work out fine. I said, "does John know this?". "Nooeee, but he'll be fine with it, you just see..." 

Heck, I was not gonna deliver such a message, he could sort out his own mess, ten minutes before air time! So I dragged him into the studio, and as I suspected, John was not at all happy about being dumped into that job in the nick of time. But he's not a grouchy fella, so we did the interview, and as it happens it went very well indeed, something I found was the case at least as often when we were unprepared as when we were well prepared. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

>>>> They are jolly, having fun... <<<<<
How can they be happy knowing they have a commitment and are going to be late ? Being late implies you don't value the other person's time (life), for the other person quit doing something to be on time. To be late is an insult.

AnotherAnonymous said...

From Eo's description, I assume you are the grumpy one, always waiting?
I'm running late, and I'm going to get stressed about a little time? No way - my stress levels are WAY more important than 10 or 15 minutes, and maybe yours should be too?

Anonymous said...

AnotherAnonymous said:...<<<<< I assume you are the grumpy one ... My stress levels are WAY more important..., and maybe yours should be too? >>>>
The key words here are: "I assume" "My" and "maybe yours". Hmm, they sound very one sided.
As a wise man said: “Among individuals as among nations, the respect to other people's rights is peace”.
Assuming we all want peace, should we respect people's right to be late or right to be on time ?
PEACE.

AnotherAnonymous said...

Good point, well made. Like it! :-)

Michael Burton said...

so we did the interview, and as it happens it went very well indeed, something I found was the case at least as often when we were unprepared as when we were well prepared.

Hmm... sounds like it was a waste of time to prepare.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Apparently. Fortunately we didn't ever use a lot of time on that!