Patience: How We Wait Upon The World

Patience: How We Wait Upon the World. By David Baily Harned. Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1997. xiv + 191 pp. $12.95 (paper).

I'm a haphazard reader, prone to redeeming odd moments in trains, planes, buses and waiting rooms with books and articles. David Baily Harned's Patience: How We Wait Upon the World recently filled a small niche in my overstuffed brief case and many an odd moment. And while one might wish for a cozy, quiet study, the active routines of daily living may be the most fortuitous context for this timely little book.

The much-lamented lack of civility, erosion of the family, and other corrosive elements that pelt each day with their acid rain are symptoms of profound malaise. Every suggested cause and remedy only exacerbates. Most annoying is the usual spiritual prescription of retreat-as though separating ourselves from ordinary reality and its demands actually holds any promise of cure for those of us who must, ultimately, return to this noxious, infectious maelstrom. David Baily Harned restores hope and balance by revisiting the ancient and venerable virtue of patience where, with the skillful grace of the gifted teacher he is, we are introduced to a familiar as if for the first time.

The problem with Patience is that so few of us have ever met her. We've heard so much about her from so many sources for so many years, we only think we know her. In my repository of mental images, Patience looks like a cross between Whistler's mother and Janet Reno-a woman of sturdy features and plain grooming, prone to clothes of a simple cut and dark color, either seated erect or, in motion, purposeful and efficient. She's built for endurance, and is the kind of person you want around when there's trouble. Most of the time she sits erect in her rocker, but unmoving, exuding a kind of alert passivity. But when the going really gets rough, she can stand full face and eye to eye with trouble and, with no trace of affect, hold the line.

Harned allows us a richer experience of Patience. He shares her history with us and gently corrects our caricatures, rendering her fully dimensional. Patience is in many respects endowed with the characteristics of our imaginings. But there is more, far more, to this virtue-the virtue, Harned posits, without which the other virtues are unattainable. His introduction reaches deep into philosophical history and brings us right up to the moment. The singular virtue of this marvelous little book is that it remains faithful to Patience while remaining faithful to our reality. Nearly every page touches upon everyday experience, and thus engages.

Virtue is more than a philosophical contemplation; it's also the substance of a lived and lively faith, the stuff of life. Imagine this book, then, as a lab manual-a book to be used in the midst of activity, philosophy with genuine utility. Harned brings Patience into intimate conversation with our private concerns, like self worth and vocation. But he makes Patience also a stimulating partner in conversation with our public life and worries. For example, he addresses "the condition Augustine described as ignorantia et concupiscentia-ignorance because the self that is made for God searches for infinite Good among an infinitude of finite goods and unbridled hunger because its quest for earthly satisfactions is endless. Bereft of any sort of moral compass, those who are affected by the vices in their most extreme forms seek to escape this condition by acting just to see what will happen, for the fun of it, for something to do, to pass the time-which is to say, for no reason at all." Then he grounds us with the simple addition, "This is the mentality of the gangs that aimlessly prowl our urban streets" (p. 147), and in so doing, encourages me to a more patient assessment of this painful urban reality, and reminds me that what I too easily dismiss as meaningless crime is also a profound expression of spiritual quest. Reading this passage, as I did, sitting in the Cook County Courthouse in the Chicago Loop awaiting assignment to a jury gave the passage extra power.

Again and again, Harned's book took on the manner of tutorial, a guide to apprenticeship, a field guide to the ordinary. Thus did I gain a more lasting and useful introduction to Patience, whose guise I now more clearly recognize and whose companionship I welcome in my routines. While I wouldn't presume to consider so prominent a virtue an intimate, I look forward to our growing friendship and find myself in fond anticipation and deep appreciation for all the moments we share. I'll long be grateful to Mr. Harned for this rich acquaintance.

SAM PORTARO

Brent House, The University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Winter 1999
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