Waiting
Anticipation. There once was a ketchup commercial that was built upon having to wait a long time for the product to drip out of the bottle. The idea was that slow and thick meant it was better than competing brands. Waiting was proclaimed a good thing.
When I was a boy, looking forward to Christmas was something I did with much expectation and joy. I would lie under the tree every day staring at the ever increasing pile of colorful packages, trying to guess what might be there, wishing and wishing that the days would speed past and the happy morning would finally arrive. Far too early on Christmas morning, I would pop out of bed and rush to the lighted tree, encouraging my parents to get up. I could never understand why they wanted to sleep so long.
Now, as an adult I understand the desire to sleep, and I don’t look forward to Christmas so much as I did in the morning of my life–or at least not with anywhere near the same intensity. I do enjoy seeing the happiness of my children, their eager anticipation, and I like doing what I can to bring them pleasure on Christmas morning. They are always overjoyed and grateful—and the look in their faces reminds me of how I once felt. As a grownup, Christmas has become more a time of stress, of trying to get presents and cards—and wondering about being able to afford it all. Christmas is now just a disruption to the normal, predictable flow of monthly expenses. Still, I enjoy the season.
As an adult, there are other, much more unpleasant things to wait for: the front of the line at the DMV. Getting into the doctor’s office and actually seeing the doctor. Dentists. Getting service in a restaurant. Or finding what I need at Wal-Mart.
One of the new Super Wal-marts replaced our ordinary Wal-Mart over the summer. My wife and I had looked forward to its appearance for several reasons. First, it is much closer to my house than the grocery store we normally use. Second, the prices are considerably lower than said grocery store.
Unfortunately, the reality of our Super Wal-Mart has often been a disappointment: we have to wait in long lines, since they do not even have close to the necessary number of checkers. Worse, we have to wait to find the items we want to buy. And I’m not talking about odd or big ticket sorts of things. I’m talking about ordinary things like chicken flavor Top Ramen noodles and Campbell’s cream of broccoli soup. A mop bucket. An ordinary bulb for a flashlight. A whole month went by before buckets appeared on the shelf where the label said they were supposed to be. I’m still waiting for Top Ramen noodles and cream of broccoli soup to be regularly in stock. The empty shelves where the labels state they are supposed to be mock me every time I visit the store. Same with the light bulb for my flashlight. I complained to their customer service. They told me to complain to their corporate office. I have done so. And I continue, after a month, to wait for any kind of response from Wal-Mart, let alone to actually find what I want.
But there are also happy things to wait for as an adult: like the annual vacation. Or, on rare occasions, the realization of a life-time dream, as in 2008 I awaited the publication of my first book by a major publisher: Reader’s Digest Books. That book, The Bible’s Most Fascinating People, went on to be translated into 13 other languages, including two Dutch editions and then being reissued by a different American publisher in 2012.
Since then, I’ve had three other nonfiction books released. But the waiting continues. The life of a writer consists mostly of waiting. Publishers are never quick. I cool my heels sometimes for a very long while. It is not unusual to wait months, even a full year before a publisher gets back to me on a submission. And it isn’t always good news. Just because I’ve been published repeatedly, there’s never a guarantee that I’ll get published again. And so what do I do while I wait? I just keep on writing.
