April 07, 2004
Father Time
I'm one of those obnoxiously punctual people. Actually, punctual isn't the word for it: I'm downright early. I started out my life on planet Earth as a preemie (ask my mother -- please, because I'm tired of listening to the stories) and haven't been late since. I carry around novels and crossword puzzle books in my purse, not because I enjoy looking like a bag lady, but to give me something to do when I'm early for whatever event I'm attending.
This penchant for punctuality has served me well in my adult life. As a lawyer, if you're late for court, some judges will humiliate you in front of your peers, some will refuse to hear your arguments on your motions before the court, and some will sanction you. I have also been through more than a few depositions that only lasted ten minutes. Upon my exit from the depositions, I would run into people who were twenty minutes late -- and missed the entire deposition.
So it was with some interest that I read a short article in this week's issue of the New Yorker about how punctuality was such a problem in Ecuador that the Ecuadorans started a punctuality compaign. They determined that their country's lateness was costing them on average $2.5 billion a year.
One of the points made in the article (which I would link to, if I could find a copy of it on the 'net -- The New Yorker obviously doesn't have it, since they want people to buy their magazine rather than reading it for free online) was that lateness was interwoven with issues of class. The article notes, "Lateness can be a way for the rich and powerful to assert themselves, to show how much more valuable their time is."
That really gets at the crux of my biggest problem with people who are chronically late. I understand that I am the one who makes the conscious decision to be obsessively early all the time, but people who are always late are, in my view, narcissistic. Simply assuming that they are so important that everyone else will happily wait for them to deign to grace everyone with their presence just galls me.
Posted by Kitty at April 7, 2004 09:15 PM
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