Waiting Room

by Teresa MI Schaefer, PHD

As I sit here in my office waiting for my next client to arrive in my “waiting room”, I realize what a great waiting room it is. I do not need to put toys back on the shelves, straighten magazines, fluff pillows, empty trash, sweep, dust…you get the picture.

My “waiting room” is virtual. Things never get out of order there or dusty. There are no dirt clods on the floor, puddles from rain saturated shoes, no Kleenex that missed the trash bin. Nope, none of that. In fact, there aren’t any light bulbs that need replacing, no toilet paper or hand towels that need replacing. Nothing needs replacing. The artwork isn’t as cool. In fact, there is no art, but the logo is there – just not hand painted. In my virtual waiting room, there are no plants to water or fish to feed. WAIT! Waldo!

Waldo! Poor Waldo, the office fish, is all alone in his tank in a vacuous real waiting room of no people, one in which the lights aren’t lit and haven’t been since mid-March.

A waiting room that also does not need me to put toys back on the shelves, straighten magazines, fluff pillows, empty trash, sweep, dust…. Things never get out of order there or dusty. There are no dirt clods on the floor, puddles from rain saturated shoes, no Kleenex that missed the trash bin. Nope, none of that. In fact, there aren’t any light bulbs that need replacing, no toilet paper or hand towels that need replacing. Nothing needs replacing.

Nonetheless, Waldo keeps swimming and cleaning the tank of its algae. He hangs out on the bottom, sometimes on a wall. Sometimes he swims, but mostly he just rests. I would say his world is relatively unchanged. Except, he no longer has the faces of little ones planted on the outside glass of his tank. He no longer must navigate the tap-tap- tap hellos of little ones. These things he hasn’t had to do since mid-March.

He is fed every day, but I feel bad for him. He would like to see the big eyes on little faces and hear the tap-tap-taps. Come to think of it, I would like to clean the glass of Waldo’s tank of the nose and fingerprints of the little ones. I would like to put toys back on the shelves, straighten magazines, fluff pillows, empty trash, sweep, dust…you get the picture.

My “waiting room” is virtual. Things never get out of order there. And that is an OK thing. I just don’t want it to be a forever thing.

Neither does Waldo.