O TRUDZIE OCZEKIWANIA
ON THE EFFORT OF WAITING

Summary/Abstract: Thinking about "tomorrow" and waiting for specific moments in the future involve the belief that we are "in for" something. A statement that we are waiting for something awaiting us might seem paradoxical, because only an entity experiencing the passage of time is capable of waiting. It is, after all, us waiting, and in saying that something is awaiting us, we in a way express our own belief that whatever is awaiting us, as if reciprocally, will inevitably happen. The things we wait for are not merely certain states of affairs, since we also have expectations of others as well as of ourselves. Waiting is inherently bound with the experience of our contingency, just as our experience of contingency is bound with our experience of the passage of time. Precisely for this reason, the main argument in these considerations is preceded by a brief discussion of the phenomena of passing and contingency. Waiting always involves a goal, which in turn determines whether the process becomes easy or difficult, whether it is incessantly dragging on or completed almost in no time. The aspect of the phenomenon of waiting discussed in this paper is the ways in which rational and free beings cope with the passing of time and their contingency. Thus, waiting is seen as an effort, and its closer scrutiny contributes to bringing out the significance of the virtue of patience which plays a crucial role in the process of waiting. Patience is an imperative in the case of all those who must wait, and since waiting is inherent in a human existence, patience turns out a virtue more difficult to live without than to accomplish. The argument put forward in the paper proceeds from the discussion of passing and contingency, through an insight into the phenomenon of waiting inherent in them, to defining the significance of the virtue of patience in the process of waiting.

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