I carried my wife to med-surge today for some minor surgery on her left foot. It would have been major surgery had it been my foot. She is like her mother, she does not want to be late so we got there 40 minutes early which was a mistake. They told her to be there at 8:00 am and we waited until 8:00 for them to process her; then we waited another 30 minutes to be called back. She got ready and then we waited two hours. I am not great at waiting but I have learned to take reading material which I had but there was a loud mouth woman in the waiting room and between her and blaring TV, I could not concentrate. When they put us in the little cubicle, I thought, it will be quiet here and I can read. Wrong, they put the big mouth heifer in the stall next to us and she didn’t shut up. I got up and stuffed Kleenex in my ears and I could still hear her. I started praying for them to come get one of us and give me some relief. She was grading on my nerves so bad that I was tempted to bang my head against the wall.
Peace, be still!
As providence would have it, they came and got my wife and so I got to go back out to the waiting area. I am no more than seated until, she pops through the doors; they came got her husband just after they got my wife. She pops our her phone and begins showing folks pics and videos, all were funny I suppose because they were laughing and making enough noise to wake the dead. I went to the parking lot and started doing laps around the building. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the walk. When I got back inside, a second woman had showed up and she was talking to her mother on her cell phone. This woman was not young and I can’t imagine how old her mother was but she yacks and yacks…I’m thinking woman, no one wants to hear you talk to your mama but she goes on and on and on. I can’t leave the building because I am waiting on word from my wife who is in surgery. Finally, a nurse comes to my rescue: she said, Mr. Bailey, follow me please and I did. She took me to a sound proof room and told me to wait for the doctor. I was thrilled: no TV, no yacking, no cell phones–it was like a piece of heaven.
I had rather be water boarded is to be in a waiting room with those two women. I take a root canal before going through that experience again. There are three places where you don’t yack: Church, Library’s and Hospitals. For Pete’s sake or Jack’s, don’t carry on extended phone conversations when you are in confined quarters with other people. Be courteous, be respectful of others.
Remember the story of Gadarene demoniac: that sucker hollowed and screamed all night long but that was because he was full of devils. When Jesus drove the demons out, he settled down. He was calm. Get rid of those noisy demons. There is nothing wrong with peace and quiet.
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