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Clues to meta-waiting ?


Waiting as an Experience of Fundamental Significance (Part #3)

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As noted in the introduction, the clarification of the range of forms and "flavours" of waiting helps to frame the possibility that there are subtler forms of waiting to be recognized. Specifically, do those waiting over longer periods, whether by obligation or by choice, shift into new modes in order to manage the waiting process more appropriately and more insightfully?

Do those experiencing extended periods of waiting offer pointers to more profoundly insightful modes of waiting to which attention has yet to be adequately drawn, as previously argued (Varieties of Recognition in Practice of an Elusive Missing Dimension, 2018; Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities: clues to the dynamics of enacting new paradigms through movement, 2002)? The latter clusters clues as follows:

Clues to movement, ascent and escape
Clues to Movement and Attitude Control Combining Clues to Movement and Attitude Control 'Ascent' and 'Escape'
...from kinetic intelligence and sports psychology
...from animal locomotion
...from animal locomotion understood generically
...from Christian vices and virtues
...from yogic perspectives on afflictions of the mind
...from Buddhism
...from the streetwise and from nonviolence
...from the martial arts
...from psychotherapy and game-playing
...from dialogue		 Combining the clues framing any static perspective
Clues to integrating movement through kinetic intelligence
Clues from catastrophe theory, force dynamics and manoeuvering
Clues from navigation of multi-media and virtual reality environments		 Clues to 'ascent' from Christianity
Clues to 'escape' from Buddhism
Clues to 'ascent' and 'escape' from Theosophy
Tuning and playing category arrays: methodological challenges
Patterns of aesthetic associations

"Unsaying"? The obvious challenge is how to discuss such subtler forms of experience, other than through metaphor, especially since any description may be incompatible with the nature of the experience. One approach is indicated by the understanding of a via negativa, namely a process of unsaying (Michael A. Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, 1994; William Franke, A Philosophy of the Unsayable, 2014). This is characteristic of apophatic theology, namely saying only what divinity is not (Chris Boesel and Catherine Keller, Apophatic Bodies: negative theology, incarnation, and relationality, 2009). In some such mode, the quest here may be distinguished from forms of waiting noted above, namely:

  • not the waiting which is the preoccupation of process optimization to minimize wait time, in which waiting is framed as a form of waste
  • not the waiting which is framed as a mundane obligation, as with queuing or the boredom of waiting rooms
  • not the waiting which is attached to, and focused on awaiting a particular outcome

In the last case however, a distinction can be made between attachment to the outcome and the manner in which the experience of waiting may be progressively transformed as the period becomes ever longer. As discussed below, this contrasts with any form of waiting which is focused on the future, rather than present experience, as is characteristic of futures research and anticipation studies:

Through metaphor, examples might then include:

  • waiting by a river for a fish to bite -- which it may not do throughout the whole day, as with watching for the sight of a rare bird
  • waiting for resolution of bureaucratic processes after months, and with the possibility of taking years
  • waiting for an ideal partner, or some form of recognition, with the increasing knowledge -- as time goes by -- that this may never happen
  • waiting for conditions to be appropriate, as a consequence of their slow evolution over time
  • waiting for new insight into a long-standing problem, knowing that this may well never come

In these cases there is necessarily a shift from hoping for an immediate resolution by which the waiting process will cease -- release from prison, winning the lottery, falling in love. The shift implies another form of engagement with the waiting experience. It can indeed be "thought about". However a distinction can then be made between "philosophising" about waiting in some way (potentially as a distraction) and "re-cognizing" a new and more subtle quality to the waiting experience itself. Arguably -- when not employed as a metaphor -- this is one form of distraction from the experience of waiting, one typical of waiting rooms and queuing perhaps.

"Recognition"? Irrespective of any indulgence in distraction, there is however the possible transformation of perspective associated with waiting over hours, days or years. The process might be compared to the maturation of wine or spirits over years, if not decades. The metaphor is all the more appropriate in that it occurs under constraint, within containers and undisturbed. These may be appropriately termed "stills", although the distinction between distillation and fermentation merits reflection in relation to waiting. The outcome of that process is distinctive and highly valued. There are further ironies in that monasteries have long specialized in that process -- with the "spirit" thereby engendered presumably evoking fruitful parallels with the processes of their meditative disciplines.

Such transformative comparisons merit further exploration, given the highly controversial process of radicalisation typical of those waiting in prison or detention centres -- and the subsequent efforts, through "enhanced interrogation" to "break the spirit" of anyone radicalised in this way. Use of interminable waiting may be one of the techniques used to "soften up" a person.

In the absence of any means of describing such a transformation of the waiting experience, what clues can be cited as evidence for its occurrence? Some might be inferred from the previous exercise (Varieties of Recognition in Practice of an Elusive Missing Dimension, 2018). Indicative examples might include:

  • recognition of the maturation of a person beyond visible and tangible features. What is sensed as having changed?
  • recognition of a person to whom it is felt that respect is immediately appropriate -- beyond attributes of title, role or power
  • recognition of having successfully "broken the spirit" of a person, or alternatively that the person has been "tempered" by the experience and strengthened thereby (as exemplified by Nelson Mandela, and others)
  • recognition of a person of wisdom, possibly irrespective of maturity or evocation of respect
  • recognition of a person who may be held to embody the future (in the present)
Arguably recognizable attributes include combinations of presence and stillness -- especially given the delightful connotation through "still" to the production of "quality spirits". It is highly questionable whether such inner stillness can be usefully described, although it tends to be readily recognized, and distinguished from any simple tendency to silence. References to its nature include: Whether those who endeavour to describe it would be recognized as having that quality, rather than claiming to experience it, is a question (as with this articulation, necessarily). Examples might indeed include:
  • appreciation of a person experienced as powerful, given that that too can be recognized
  • appreciation of a person whose intention is intuited without anything needing to be said .
  • appreciation of a person who "sits", as with a long-term practitioner of Zazen meditation
  • appreciation of a martial art sensei, as with aikido

The philosophy of aikido is somewhat explicit -- in ki-aikido -- with regard to a transformation of experience (Eri Izawa, Aikido Principles Transposed Up Into the Realm of Spirit, MIT, 2006; Stefan Stenudd. Aikido Principles: basic concepts of the peaceful martial art (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2016). The stages in that transformation may be recognized to a degree through rankings, although these are are only too readily confused with competitive achievement.

"Awaiting in religion"? Given the waiting characteristic of the religious life, there are potentially valuable insights to be drawn from the language variously used to describe the waiting process -- irrespective of what specifically is awaited (or the religion in question). Remarkable in this respect is the language used by Joanne Robinson (Waiting in Christian Traditions: Balancing Ideology and Utopia, 2015). The author notes that waiting, and the disappointment and hope that often accompany it, are explained in terms that are, at first glance, remarkably invariant across Christian traditions. What will happen will happen "on God's time":

Christians wait for prayers to be answered, for an afterlife in heaven, for the Virgin Mary to appear, and for God to speak... They wait to be liberated from oppression, to be "saved" or born again, for Easter morning to dawn, for healing, for conversion, and for baptism. A study of sources from across Christian traditions shows that there is considerable complexity beneath this surface claim. Understandings of free will and personal agency alongside shifts in institutional and theological commitments change the ways waiting is understood and valued. Waiting is often considered a positive state to be endured as long as God wills, and that fundamental understanding helps keep the promises at the heart of Christianity alive. Scholars have long overlooked the problem and promise of waiting despite (or perhaps because of) its prevalence. Indeed, there are relatively few mystics, few who have undergone "sudden" conversion, and few who have attained saintly status. Many, however, have waited, and that problem remains prominent --and its solutions remain influential -- in Christian traditions today.

Especially remarkable however is the language used with respect to Advent by Paula Gooder (The Meaning is in the Waiting: the spirit of advent, 2009) who concludes:

Advent, then, calls us into a state of active waiting: a state that recognizes and embraces the glimmers of God's presence in the world, that recalls and celebrates God's historic yet ever present actions, that speaks the truth about the almost-but-not-quite nature of our Christian living, that yearns for but cannot quite achieve divine perfection. Most of all, Advent summons us to the present moment, to a still yet active, a tranquil yet steadfast commitment to the life we live now. It is this to which Advent beckons us, and without it our Christian journey is impoverished. (p. 21)

"Control"? The question here is the distinction to be drawn between the experience of control implied by the cognitive shift in aikido -- for the practitioner as controller -- and the analytical emphasis on control, as argued in their introduction to the compilation, by Manpreet K. Janeja and Andreas Bandak (Ethnographies of Waiting: doubt, hope and uncertainty (2018):

A central theme that arises here is that of control (Giovanni Gasparini, On Waiting, Time and Society. 4, 1): who is able to act on time, and who is acted upon. In the work of Arendt and also Michael Jackson it is the capacity and experience of being able to act, and being acted upon, that is pivotal to a sense of well-being as well as agency... Here some element of planning and a sense of control over one's time are important but rarely does one encounter a social situation that can be tamed completely. The distinction between waiting/or and waiting on is instructive here (Schwartz, American Journal of Sociology, 1974, p. 858):

Waiting for describes a situation such as being stuck in a queue where one has little power vis-a-vis an institution, when there are scarce resources that result in waiting times coinciding with how power is distributed (Schwartz, 1974).

Waiting on, however, is choosing when to wait and when to act, a momentary 'putting to one side: a type of waiting that indexes agency.

Building on this insight, Monica Minnegal (The Time is Right: waiting, reciprocity and sociality, 2009: p. 91) writes: We wait on other subjects. There is always an interlocutor in such waiting [ ... ] And the performance that results from this engagement is crucially shaped by the way that waiting -- as reciprocal attention -- is exchanged: Thus, in the relational worlds we inhabit, we find an uncertain interplay between control and its lack, between a politics and poetics of waiting. It is our contention that anthropology is well equipped to explore this interplay, as waiting is also integral to the ethnographic method fundamental to our discipline. (p. 21) [emphasis added]

"Solitude"? It is questionable, for example, whether the sense of "waiting on other subjects" exhausts the experiential significance of waiting -- notably given the argument for unsaying. This is especially the case for those practicing some form of solitude, whether by choice or by obligation. Waiting, as experienced, is necessarily a solitary occupation of time. The following references on solitude are reviewed on the remarkable website of The Hermitary: resources and reflections on hermits and solitude:

To those reviews are added the following on silence:

"Alienation"? As succinctly summarized in the above review, seven solitudes are distinguished in chapters by Ralph Harper (The Seventh Solitude: man's isolation in Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche, 1965). These are:

  1. The Night of Absolutes
  2. Self-Isolation
  3. Hidden Inwardness
  4. Excursion into Chaos

5. The Destruction of God
6. The Great Noon
7. Journey from Paradise.

Are these to be associated with higher qualities of waiting -- of "meta-waiting"? Especially relevant are the implications of solitude under conditions of alienation, as when dwelling metaphorically in a wasteland -- to which the experience of society can be so readily compared by many.

Art of waiting: Here the arguments of Sabbar S. Sultan and Ibrahim Abu Shihab (Waiting in T. S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land', Studies in Literature and Language, 3, 2011, 2, pp. 92-103) are of value -- especially given the explicit aesthetic dimension in a practice like aikido.

  • Eliot's The Waste Land has never ceased stirring controversy among critics and readers of English literature. The multiplicity of its implications and deliberate gaps to be filled by the readers are some of its outstanding traits. The present paper, however, focuses its attention on the act of waiting as an underlying theme unifying its loose structure.
  • In its general framework, The Waste Land is constructed out of a number of vignettes, patched quotations, and snapshots from different cultural ,religious, and literary contexts. These references are from the east and west, modern and ancient, fictive and factual, historical and mythological. What brings all these together is the central topic of fear and barren lusts, of waiting and looking forward to a sign of redemption or salvation. It is worthwhile to note that T. S. Eliot shows a great interest and even admiration of the literary symbols or actual figures associated with waiting and endurance.
  • This oscillation between two times (past and future) constitutes the agony of waiting, sprinkling the poem with its unfulfilled or deferred hopes.
  • If the poem, as already suggested, suffers from fragmentation in having an episodic and dislocated structure, the notion of waiting informs almost every bit and piece of 'The Waste land' and eventually bestows upon it a sort of cohesive unity. The central pattern of waiting is, of course, present in the title of the poem.
The authors distinguish this sense of waiting from that recognized by other authors:

It is worthwhile to note that waiting here is different from, say, Maurice Blanchot's experience of this sensation. Unfortunately it is not accompanied by its sequel or opposite, i.e., forgetting. In his novel, Waiting and Oblivion, Blanchot spells out the inaccessible in Eliot's The Waste Land: "Forgetting, waiting; waiting that assembles, disperses; forgetting that disperses, assembles. Waiting, forgetting" (Khatab, p.84).

..., the concept of waiting in Eliot's The Waste Land is different from that expounded by absurdists like Eugene Ionesco. In his The Chairs (1952), for example, the aging couple waits passively for guests who never show up. The same holds true to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1956) where Vladimir and Estragon give the sonata of time past and awe-inspiring present.

There are many references to the need to develop, cultivate and inculcate the art of waiting. It is presented as closely related to the art of listening by Niina Koivunen (Organizational Music: the role of listening in interaction processes, Consumption, Markets and Culture, 5, 2002, 1, pp. 99-106):

Listening is difficult because seeing takes so much energy. Listening deals with the invisible, which means that no images nor menta.I pictures are needed. Even a slightest image orientates the mind to the visible and thus to seeing. Listening is closely related to the art of waiting that is one of the most difficult skills for human beings. For animals it is completely natural to wait or be aware, but human beings seem to be lost when waiting and encountering unpredictable interaction with the world. Many philosophers, especially Japanese ones and the Zen tradition have discussed this principle of waiting. One central theme has always been to abandon the mental pictures and to open the mind for something new, for something different from oneself. This proper waiting also means that we try to get rid of our introversion. We try to open our shells and communicate with the other out there, to tolerate the other and accept it. Another important issue is that one can practice these skills, waiting and listening skills can be developed....

There is the intriguing possibility that what is recognized in the performance arts as "style" of a higher order may be intimately related to a deeper appreciation of timing than is considered meaningful in other contexts. It is an appreciation of movement -- "moves" in popular jargon. This would then frame the possibility of a deeper sense of timing cultivated by some performers -- with the implication of their deeper sense of waiting for appropriate moments (Janet Goodridge, Rhythm and Timing of Movement in Performance: drama, dance and ceremony, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1999). Clearly this extends to sports and the martial arts. Far less evident is how degrees of depth are experienced even if they are apparent to the most sensitive critics. Clues may of course be found in any sense of depth of flow (Susan A. Jackson and Robert Eklund, Assessing Flow in Physical Activity: the Flow State Scale-2 and Dispositional Flow Scale-2, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 24, 2002, 2, pp. 133-150; Giovanni B. Moneta, On the measurement and conceptualization of flow. 2012)

A valuable discussion of the problematic appreciation of "depth of style" in contrast with "breadth of style" is provided with respect to church music by the organist, Gary W. Cobb:

The expectations for breadth of styles in worship have profound implications for the rest of the spiritual life of a congregation and also for college curricula. It is interesting to note that this expectation usually centers on "breadth of style" rather than "depth of style". How can one enter into a clearly defined sense of worship in a service that does not necessarily exhibit one's best efforts or does not have a unifying thread running through it that somehow unites the Word and the music? (One Person's Plea for a Return to Focus in Worship, National Association of Schools of Music, 2003, pp. 261-267)

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