IS PATIENCE FOOLISHNESS OF WISDOM?

Fighting for yourself is an instinct everyone gets born with, not so?

It's all natural, and even the eyes can tell you about it.

Or you can get your answer merely by observing them.

Have you ever seen the way the eyes protect themselves by shutting their doors in a flash

When a missile or poking finger aims at them?

Can you really do anything to checkmate instinct?

Playing the fool was never my style

I used to think I was wise

That I could tolerate no insult

Especially when it came to standing up to others

But, assuming that that particular bridge is still standing,  a lot of water has indeed passed under it.

Nothing ever stays the same forever.

The young shall surely grow up.

The once-smooth faces have now matured and grown beards and whiskers. 

Even Ken, sweet hot-tempered Ken of yesterday, is no longer wet behind the ears.

As it is universally advised: change is the only constant factor in life.

So here we are, at the threshold of a new reality.

Strange but undeniable it is.

I am certain it couldn't have happened overnight

It must have been growing over the years

Gaining strength from experience to experience

Now suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, 

Its presence can no longer be dismissed.

It's the birth of a new reality dawning on me  with the impact of ice-cold water thrown in my face. 

It brings me hurriedly down from my high horse of misconception and wrong values

And I can't help but wonder that

I have been a foolish one where once I had felt otherwise

Or else a few cogs must have gone loose in my head

Because I just can't wrap my fingers around it.

Would someone explain it to me please?

Help me make sense out of it all?

Is patience cowardice or bravery?

I was a kid once upon a time

And again and again dad sang it in our ears

"Children, always be patient"

He said it so repeatedly and persistently I can only think of it as a mantra. 

Ken my younger brother got slapped in school

And trust him to throw himself into the fray like a roaring lion.

Did he do wrong?

Should he have taken it and move away with his tail between his legs?

I never knew how to teach him that 

Or how to practice it myself.

Obviously parents always know better.

Dad's flogging response was answer enough, I guess.

Is patience a friend or an enemy ?

Years later a phenomenon was at work

Doing the work of a tutor to me

Experience being the best teacher

Often in my head and dreams I have put a face to them

One pushing me on into tantrums of  confrontation

And the other softly telling me to take it easy

And you know as well as I do that I didn't.

Who wants to appear weak?

Is it not easier to be foolish than wise?

Is it not easier to paint the town red and buy drinks for everyone, than to earn a dollar or pound?

Have I not many times taken rash decisions and actions that brought me nothing but trouble, 

Because of lack of patience?

I have witnessed my brother and other guys I used to know 

Turning their backs on good advise

Refusing to embrace patience

And paying a big price everytime

And over time I got to realize

That if impatience had repeatedly turned out to be a trouble maker for us 

Then surely patience would be a jolly good fellow to befriend

Is patience foolishness or wisdom?

Once upon another moment in time

I have become someone else

I am a bigger version of myself

Physically and mentally if I do say so

To wit, the magic of patience is no longer a secret to me 

To wit, the effect of all I have seen and experienced.

To wit, the sum of what I now know and believe

That to be patient is neither foolishness nor cowardice.

That a wise guy never fights in every battle but knows when to walk away

Else he might become his own worst enemy and downfall

That impatience breeds mistakes

Even sometimes bring calamity

But wisdom flows from patience

That crises and turbulence are twins

Born through the loins of impatience

While patience is the natural mother of peace and progress