Waiting Rooms

Jesus calls us, not to live in waiting rooms, but to wait in living rooms. Every moment is open to God. Every moment is
charged with transcendence.

Is there any more annoying, exasperating experience in "civilized" life than being at the wrong end of an interminable,
serpentine line of humanity?

Of course, the slowest and most frustrating lines occur at all our very favorite places. If you slip on the ice and hear a
sickening crunch as you land, bet that a trip to the hospital emergency room is in your future. Bet, too, that when you get
there, for some unfathomable reason, you will find the place looking like K-Mart during Dollar Days. Squalling babies,
bleeding do-it-yourselfers, frightened wheezing great- grandfathers, all of them in desperate need -- and all of them
ahead of you and your throbbing injury. Everyone there feels awful, and everyone there resents having to wait in line for
medical attention. No wonder the mood of the place is surly, snappish and snarling.

Other infamous waiting rooms include that day-devouring line you face at the despised Department of Motor Vehicles. Why does it
seem like it is the goal of...