Punctuality

Aladdin: Princess Jasmine, you're very...
Genie: Wonderful! Magnificent! Glorious!... Punctual!
Aladdin: Punctual!
Princess Jasmine: Punctual?
Genie: Sorry.
Aladdin: Uh... uh... beautiful!
Genie: Nice recovery.


For some reason, I have always been deathly afraid of being late to things. I’m afraid of missing out on information or excitement, of letting someone down, of standing someone up, or of not respecting someone’s time, or whatever. No matter what the occasion- be it a practice, a party, a meeting- I have got to show up on time. The idea of being fashionably late has no appeal. If I say I'm going to be there at 5:37, then I will be there at 5:37.

Recently, however, I have started to realize that most of the world does not share my views. I tell people that something starts at 4, and they don’t come til 4:15. I show up to an event “starting” at 8, and it doesn’t actually get going until 8:45. So rare is the event that actually starts when it says it will. And even rarer is the event when all the participants show up on time. People either do not take the responsibility of checking the clock and managing themselves to show up on time, or else they purposely come late to make an appearance or play some silly social game.

And so I come to a crossroads. Do I conform to the world by showing up late to things and save myself countless hours of standing around waiting for people? Or do I continue showing up on the nose, feeling snuggly self-justified and slighty irritated towards others? Or do I mix the two by showing up on time and expecting others to show up late, thus not creating violated expectations when they are indeed late? It will probably have to be the third option. Maybe I’ll just always carry a crossword puzzle in my back pocket to save the time.

I don’t know. Is being late to things morally wrong? Is it a form of lying? I think in some ways it is. Or is it just culture? And is following a culture wrong? Can I blame a culture? Personally, I think Aladdin was right on—punctuality is a great trait for anyone and is a reflection of their respect to other people. Because think about it, every time you’re late you are making somebody wait on you. It’s basically saying, “yeah, whatever I am doing is more important than whatever you had planned.”

But I choose not to base any anger on a societal norm. Because anger is a choice, just as what we set our expectations to be is a choice.

Yeah, I’ll just stick with the crossword puzzle.