Epiphany at the Eyeglass Store

On choosing empathy over patience

My wife, who interrupted the Morning Journal in a way I hope to never forget

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

Live Demo in Kittery, Maine

So there I was in Pebbles, our Tesla Model Y, recording a tight, inspiring Morning Journal flash briefing about the benefits of choosing empathy over patience.

With the help of ChatGPT, I had identified these three advantages:

1. Patience can wear thin. Empathy is self-renewing.

2. Empathy improves communication.

3. Empathy increases adaptability.

With about a minute left in the recording of the episode, the passenger door opened. My wife Darlene rushed into the car with a change of plans.

With Voice Memo still recording, I expressed my annoyance and explained that I was almost finished doing the Morning Journal!

To my credit, I was dimly aware of how Sane Len moments had earlier been encouraging listeners to eschew gritting-your-teeth patience and to choose seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

I took a couple of deep breaths, and we headed to Beach Pea Baking Company for lattes and croissants. It turned out to be a fabulous coffee shop, and we made it back to Kittery Optometric Associates in time for Darlene’s next session for adjusting her eyeglasses.

Settled back into a parking space with Pebbles, I listened to the recording of my meltdown and realized it had happened at the exact moment I had uttered the word “adaptability.”

Okay. Got it.

Thus today’s Morning Journal includes a live demo of running out of patience. It concludes with an aspiration:

May I always remember what I learned about empathy in the parking lot of the Kittery eyeglass store.