Monday, December 12, 2005
Lines Are Our Friends
My mom doesn't like to shop on Saturdays. She'd rather do without. Around this season a lot of people feel the same, the lines and the crowds are usually just not worth it. But lines do serve a very important purpose; they serve several very important purposes, actually. For one, without lines America would turn into a purely hierarchical country. Lines also teach us patience and help us to get things done.
Without the accepted rule of first-come-first-served, those who were served first would be the ones that had the highest position or the most money. But ours is a government and a country of the people, all the people, not exclusively one group or another's. Because of standing in lines--dreary as it is--we preserve the ideal of equality!
Lines teach us patience! They have to; it is either learn patience or die of impatience before the destination is reached. Lines also teach us what is really important. Not long ago I was in a fabric-craft store and stood in line for about twenty minutes. It wasn't that bad, actually. The conversations around me were interesting and there were nice things to look at. During our vertical shuffle a woman with a baby and an item in her hand came up to the line and looked at how far it reached,"I guess that answers my question," she said, and put what she was carrying on a shelf and left. Some things are just not important enough to us to stand in a line for. If something is important enough than we will benefit from the patience that a line will teach us.
If we did not have lines everything would be harder to keep track of, and in consequence we would get less done. Consider the emergincies in which lines have to be disregarded. If lines were not already in place than we would not be able to see where the exeption would lie. If my logic is faulty, please at least accept that we need order, and lines get it done.
I have heard it said that standing in line is a national sport in Britain. Whether or not that is true, I will not verify, but it is a sure thing that no matter where we go we will stand in lines. Whether or not standing in line is conforming to a system that could be better I will not get into. I am simply greatful that the lines I stand in are not the life and death positions of food lines all over the world.
Without the accepted rule of first-come-first-served, those who were served first would be the ones that had the highest position or the most money. But ours is a government and a country of the people, all the people, not exclusively one group or another's. Because of standing in lines--dreary as it is--we preserve the ideal of equality!
Lines teach us patience! They have to; it is either learn patience or die of impatience before the destination is reached. Lines also teach us what is really important. Not long ago I was in a fabric-craft store and stood in line for about twenty minutes. It wasn't that bad, actually. The conversations around me were interesting and there were nice things to look at. During our vertical shuffle a woman with a baby and an item in her hand came up to the line and looked at how far it reached,"I guess that answers my question," she said, and put what she was carrying on a shelf and left. Some things are just not important enough to us to stand in a line for. If something is important enough than we will benefit from the patience that a line will teach us.
If we did not have lines everything would be harder to keep track of, and in consequence we would get less done. Consider the emergincies in which lines have to be disregarded. If lines were not already in place than we would not be able to see where the exeption would lie. If my logic is faulty, please at least accept that we need order, and lines get it done.
I have heard it said that standing in line is a national sport in Britain. Whether or not that is true, I will not verify, but it is a sure thing that no matter where we go we will stand in lines. Whether or not standing in line is conforming to a system that could be better I will not get into. I am simply greatful that the lines I stand in are not the life and death positions of food lines all over the world.
# posted by dancer @ 1:01 PM 
