Queue

Isn’t that an interesting word? It looks interesting. You write it and you’re not sure that’s really how it’s spelled. And it just sounds like “Q” so why do you need all those other letters anyway?

I’ve been thinking of this word for a few days. It felt like a “good word” but there really wasn’t much to associate with it. It wasn’t forming into a blog post; it’s just been sitting there in my imagination while I’ve been digging for something more to say about it.

I guess my first experience with “lining up” is from my earliest days at school. We lined up at the ringing of the bell to be brought in to the classroom in orderly fashion. “Lining up” required a particular protocol, mainly involving quiet and not poking the person in front. I recall my first day as an elementary school teacher, standing there at the front of those two (yes, properly separated boys and girls) lines of expectant faces, wondering who I was and what we would be experiencing together as the school year unfolded. Usually the girls’ line was the quiet line (without poking) while they waited for the boys to settle down.

Later queue experiences in my life—at the bank, at the grocery store, the license bureau, the passport office, the airport—are not quiet. I tend to visit in a queue. I find it a great place to speak to strangers. What is there about being in a line that encourages the questions: how are you? Where are you off to? How are you dealing with this humidity?

My children used to ask me: do you know that person? In fact, they used to ask me: do you know everybody? And for an introvert such as I, it is somewhat unusual just how comfortable I am with speaking to strangers in a queue.

What is there about a queue? Is it the safety of the limits of the line? We know it’s only going in that direction and at the end we’ll go our separate ways. I do like speaking to people in a line. I like making that little connection. Life is about making connections after all. It might even be good practice at reducing the fears Carman wrote about recently. After all, we are all God’s children, moving unavoidably through life towards the inevitable “same place.” Might as well be present with each other as we inch along.

Think about that, the next time you find yourself in a queue.

Posted by Marion