Obsidian

The woefully pretentious strike again. This time, though, they show up and strike whenever they feel like it. See, I've been to a couple of pagan festivals here, and aside from the people I associate with now, most pagans I know aren't very good at keeping time. One of them playfully joked that their watch was set to Pagan Standard Time, and one must thence excuse them from their deadlines written in Eastern time. And this pisses me off, see, because I do my damnedest to make sure I'm on time. But, just like meetings at work, pagan meetings never seem to commence as scheduled, because you know that some key member's going to be at least a half hour late. Pitiful.

This, like most problems in the Wiccan World, reduce to one thing: self-importance issues. "I think I'm important enough to where it won't matter if I'm late," says the self-important snob. "They'll wait for me, because they have to." This is why your manager sets meetings for 10:00 and shows up himself at 10:18.

And this destroys it for those of us who give enough of a shit about our comrades to show up on time. But, as the Fates would have it, the solitary instance I decide to slack off is the one time everything commences on time. Why? Because the Fates are bitches, that's why. Just kidding ;)

But in all seriousness, this has been bugging me for a while, but I never thought to bring it up until today, and for that I'm sorry. So now you know why I'm pissed off (again), but this time I'm going to tell you how to solve these problems and reconcile Pagan Standard Time with your current time zone (you know, the one you scheduled your Esbat for):

1. Foremost: IF YOU SCHEDULE YOUR RITUAL FOR 6:00 PM, START AT 6:00 PM! Don't wait till 6:15 for the douchebag who decided to take his own damn time. Make him feel sorry for putting you all up by making do without him. Remember: NO ONE IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH to be excluded from a deadline everyone else has to meet. If the Gods come when invited at a specific time, then damnit, anyone and everyone else should be able to as well. If not, then the issue is something that has to be addressed by oneself and not in front of everyone else when there's more pressing matters at hand.
2. DON'T LET SLACKERS SLIDE. If you're going to allow people to piss off and show up whenever, then you're going to spend at least an half hour in neutral getting nothing done because you're waiting for some stupid, lazy boob to show up so you can begin the grounding session (because a partially grounded circle might as well not be grounded at all), then they're going to piss off and show up whenever. Furthermore, the later you allow people to show up before starting on without them, then the later they will show up before starting on without them.
3. DON'T BE LATE YOURSELF. If you do, then you're really not setting a good example if you decide to harp on other people for being late. See, if I were usually tardy, then I'd be a complete kettle trying to tell you to show up on time. However, I'm almost always punctual, and when I'm not I make damned sure the party I intend to meet (be it work, a gathering, a band practice or anything else) knows that I will be tardy and how late I will be. Why? Because I'm a responsible person and I know that I, just like anyone else, am not important enough to where a Sabbat gathering or a staff meeting or a battle of the bands will hold up just for me. And if it does, then those people seriously need to reevaluate who I am...

...cos I'm just a person. And so are you. And you're no better than me. So if I can make it on time for shit, then so can you.

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