# The Waiting Room - Synthesis A By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-12-12 To wait with dignity, persistence, and preparedness is lonely. Loneliness is a function of understanding. An understanding that few possess. Waiting alone, with neither annoyance nor despair, is rare. People who care about the waiting individual want to commiserate. A task that is difficult to do if one is not in misery. More than the waiting itself, it is this sense of isolation that is hardest to endure for the one prepared to wait as long as it takes to either resolve or progress. Empathy requires the ability to relate and understand. Quiet solidarity does not. One doesn’t necessarily have to “get it” to decide to be with another while waiting. Existence can be understood as a series of longings. These can be fulfilled, sustained, or abandoned. The content of these longings is both idiosyncratic and common. The waiting room might be a place where one can most clearly understand friendship. If one can be present with another in silent waiting, there is a solid chance that the individual is a true friend. Many will look to share their good times. A few will be willing to navigate the hard times. Almost none can sustain the ambiguity of waiting. It might prove useful to develop one’s capacity for waiting. It might also be useful to determine whom one would be willing to wait for. Perhaps a paradox of existence is that there is always time to wait. Most prefer to be distracted.  #### Related Items [[Waiting]] [[Understanding]] [[Isolation]] [[Solidarity]] [[Existential]] [[Friends]]