What is admittedly vital? What touches us in the present day – and won’t go away tomorrow? It is the issues which have moved us since human existence: happiness, love, household, partnership, time, stress, loneliness, farewell, grief.
BILD columnist Louis Hagen, Coming from a German-Jewish household, he sought solutions to the everlasting questions of mankind from poets, thinkers and researchers. And located just a few solutions which might be amazingly easy – and but can enrich our lives.
★★★
We wish to watch soccer collectively on TV, we’re wanting ahead to the sport – right here comes the group line-up. It is you, my son, who does not come. Then the kick-off, the primary 5 minutes. Who doesn’t come – my son. If I am fortunate, no objective has but been scored when my doorbell lastly rings. Hurried apology, fleeting kiss, “It does not matter,” I say, “The primary factor is that you simply’re there.”
It has been like this for years when he visits me. We glance ahead to soccer. I am irritated as a result of I’ve to see the start alone. When he comes, I fib: “It does not matter, you have not missed something to this point.”
Query: Why is my son at all times late? And why are so many individuals late?
The Duden defines punctuality as “preserving to an agreed time”. That sounds type of stuffy. But when one by no means retains to this time limit, one needs for a little bit of bourgeoisie. No less than I do.
BILD columnist Louis Hagen
Small rating checklist of my late arrival expertise: One particular person is at all times there too early to blame the others for coming after him. The following one at all times comes too late – and thinks that is regular. His buddies simply have to settle for it. The pressured particular person needs to be there on time, however cannot handle it. He has to make cellphone calls, drive a automobile, whatsapp and simply do not forget to breathe. The nice-natured spoiled particular person is at all times late as a result of he forgot that he had an appointment – or he’s on the fallacious place.
The difficulty of punctuality impacts many. “If you journey the world, there are just a few unmistakable indicators by which you often acknowledge ‘the German’: by the socks within the sandals, by the sensible clothes and by the truth that she or he is already ten minutes away waits till the opening time after which complains loudly if the door does not open precisely on the specified time,” writes Evelyn Siller from the German Knigge Council. This group adapts the principles of the Pope of Conduct Adolph Freiherr Knigge (1752-1796) to fashionable instances.
Punctuality is definitely, I’d say, a primarily German advantage. My colleague Maxi was a trainer in Ghana (West Africa) for a 12 months: regardless of who you meet there, he says, one to two hours late is regular. “My host mother Monica, who lovingly taken care of me, at all times requested after we had a date: Ghana-time or German-time?”
To be clear: What number of instances have I been irritated when persons are late. These folks steal the time you need to spend doing different issues. An insolence! I will by no means wait for you once more, I believe then. Or: Subsequent time you’ve to wait for me. And for much longer…
Punctuality – the politeness of kings, because the saying goes. Type of proper and true, though I do not know that many actual kings. However I do know my son. And he is at all times late.
So what?
Louis Hagen (75) was a member of the BILD editor-in-chief for 13 years and is now a advisor on the communications company WMP. His texts can be found as a ebook at koehler-mittel-store.de.
