WASTE OF TIME
Sculptor Auguste Rodin contended, “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”
This poem was born after I attended a formative meeting for a new support group for professional residential property managers.
My frustration level was high and I was NOT in a good mood…especially when one outspoken know-it-all felt moved to tell us her Very Important Point over and over again. It was, of course, a point that many of us also-experienced folks already knew.
The woman just went on and on. (Sigh!) Maybe she thought she was helping. Maybe she should have done a survey or something. The funny part was that this one was a relative newbie in a room full of people who had been in the business for decades. Her “revelation” wasn’t much of anything.
The incident reminded me of one very telling comment by an old mentor: “You’ve got two ears. You’ve got one mouth. Try to use them in those proportions.”
The meeting also reminded me that I no longer have the patience that is needed to be a part of a group – any group. Soon I’m going to become a hermit, I am thinking. However, with this one, I figured that anything that I can use to make a poem is not necessarily a waste of my time….
OH-OH….
I can’t do it…not again.
The trauma-drama worlds
Of this one’s shoulds
And that one’s don’ts
Are distracting now.
I am on a mission,
Looking for a way to get this stupid thing
(That I’ve spent all of this time cobbling together)
To fly.
The Millenium Falcon’s gonna ride again
If I can only get this dumb launchpad built.
What do I care about the spazzings
Of yet another control-freak
Who insists the earth has to quake and tremble
When they speak?
Do I care if they cry?
The joys of listening to other people’s dreamings
Have gotten thin.
Maybe it’s just me.
Maybe I have heard all the same stories
Out of different mouths one time too many.
“Get away from me, kid…
Ya bother me!”
Oh, dear…
I’m turning into W. C. Fields now!
Sheesh!
by Netta Kanoho
Picture credit: by Dineshraj Goomany via Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0]
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16 thoughts on “WASTE OF TIME”
Hi Tita,
Oh, how life is an uphill ride to the top. Then you find out the top is not where you want to be.
All things can be a lesson learned if we take the time to figure it out.
I have been in situations like you wrote about. Sometimes you want to just slap that person silly.Ha Ha.
It’s cool you took that experience and wrote a nice poem about “waste of time ” .
Great site! I like how experiences made into poems can be a way you understand what you went through.
Thanks,
Tim
Hey Tim: Thanks for your visit and comments. Please come again!
Hello Netta! First, you made me laugh out loud while I was reading how bored and frustrated you were at the meeting. I feel you! I have been through NGO trainings on saturdays and they are super basic so I get bored too. Plus, they’re in arabic, a language that I speak but don’t write so I don’t really understand some words, making it hard for me to clearly communicate. Although, that’s good because it helps me fight the urge to be like that “outspoken know-it-all ” woman. I don’t know a lot of things about poetry, I haven’t red one since I finished school ( that was about 3 years ago). But what caught my eye on your website was exactly these 3 words : “Waste of time”. It felt like this poem was written just for me. I always whine about wasting my time.. I am wasting my summer right now.. ” Nothing is a waste of time if you see the experience wisely”.. In my whole life I have repeated twice the same mistake . Do you think the second time was a waste of time ? I feel like Karma’s getting back at me..
If you’ve only repeated the same mistake twice you’re doing pretty good, Melody! The deal is this: If you don’t learn the lesson, you’ll keep repeating the mistake. When you finally get the lesson you need to learn, then you will no longer do that mistake. Instead, you get to do other, different mistakes. Also, when you’ve learned the lesson, it will be called “gaining experience.” See how it works? It’s not a heck of a lot of fun when you do the mistakes over and over again, but, hey…someday you’re going to be so “experienced” that you’ll see the lessons coming and you’ll be able to duck better. That is a very good thing! (Hee!)
Thanks for the visit and your comments. Please come again!
Repetition is fun the first time you hear it. Nice poem, i’m sure you are not attending those meetings anymore. I work with alot of young people and although their energy is great their revelations are old. They just think they discovered something new. Nice website and poems. I’ll follow you on the facebook.
Hey Dave:
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts. You’re right: those meetings made it onto my Not-Do List. Thank you, too, for the follow….
Hi Netta,
Thanks so much for posting this poem and your commentary. I really enjoyed reading it. I especially like how you turned a seemingly negative experience into something noteworthy to share with us. I am looking forward to hearing more poems from you in the future.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Please do come again….
I can emphathize with this poem and I am there myself for a long time now.
Over 20 years ago I did come, almost, to the same conclusion as you did. It was during a workshop and I was so bored already after the first day, listening to peoples’ testimonies which repeated themselves constantly what was already said to a specific topic, regarding geriatric care.
This experience had a huge ripple effect and I could see the similarities going on in my own life in so many ways.
The poem certainly reflected these thoughts I had back then. It also led to some actions where I have made some changes to my social life etc.
I feel freer today as I had back then and yes, it certainly takes some soul searching and courage to admit something isn’t right and to step up to make the change, if you don’t it would be a waste of time for sure.
Really liked the poem, thank you for sharing!
Sylvia
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your story, Sylvia. I do appreciate it.
Please do come again….
Well Hello Netta,
I cannot say that I know a great deal about poetry, but I do know a bit about wasting time, LOL
I always feel like I am wasting time and time seems to move so fast these days. I can totally relate to the feeling of becoming a hermit as well. Especially after the year we have just been through, being a hermit looks very appealing, with the exception of a few family members of course.
Thank you for sharing your pespective and I hope you find a happy medium or at least a happy place.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts, Apersinger. You make me smile.
Please do come again….
Hi Netta, We all have days where our patience is thin and there is no room for foolishness. In our desire to grow, we often step outside of our comfort zones in order to experience a new perspective. Sometimes this works out well, other times we feel like we have wasted our precious time.
It’s unfortunate that you had a challenging person at your meeting, but it sounds like the experience at least gave you an awareness of how you valued your time and sparked the inspiration for a poem that you could share.
Hee! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Aly. It was a cool revelation to me that I could use the feels I felt to vent and blow to good effect. NOT such a waste of time, that.
Please do come again.
This poem puts me in mind of those who are ready to launch into the unknown. You have the knowledge you need and are ready to go but still you listen to those who have to explain this or that without listening for you input.
You are ready for your ideas to take flight and just need a point to move forward but there is one too many trying to hold you to their standards that would only hold you back from finding your path among the stars and on the winds of time.
Jerry
Thanks for expanding this post with your own thoughts, Jerry. It is a truth. There are gonna be the naysayers, no matter what you want to do. The best antidote for them is to just go do yours, I say.
Please do come again.