Impatience
Many years ago I heard a woman give a sermon on impatience and she called it “I’m Patient,” which is, of course, what the word spells if taken apart in a particular way. Well, no matter how you take it apart, I’m not. Patient, that is.
Oh, I’m patient about some things. Especially when they have to do with other people. Some people might even say that I’m too patient. I’m just as glad to let my patients/clients figure themselves out rather than to point out what I see. When we figure ourselves out, we keep what we’ve learned a whole lot longer than when it’s pointed out to us.
Where I’m not patient is with myself.
How about you?
Interesting (at least to me) case in point …
I have decided to publish the first five of my novels instead of just the first one. Very exciting. In fact, very, very exciting.
I’d arranged for the lyric reprint rights for the first one a long time ago. That’s Oklahoma! Hex. And, I need the lyric reprint rights for the next four in order to be legit in publishing them.
[So you know, each novel takes place around a show or opera of some kind. In order, they go Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, Madama Butterfly, Chicago, and Once Upon A Mattress. Then, Gypsy and Wicked. I’m working on Legally Blonde a.k.a. Legally Bond right now, and the one after that is called Rent Rx, and happens around a production of Rent.]
So, I knew where to get the rights to Mattress off the top of my head because I used to work for The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, and Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers’ daughter wrote Mattress. NP, as the text messagers say.
Everywhere I looked for lyric reprint rights to Brigadoon, I found Tams-Witmark—a company similar to Imagem, who now own R & H and Williamson Music. So I screwed up my courage and I called Tams. Well, a very nice woman told me to email the president of the company who is out of the office till Wednesday. Email sent.
On to a wonderful Goffin/King song I’m using as counterpoint to an aria from Madama Butterfly. It’s published by EMI-Capitol Records. And here is where my impatience kicked in. Climbing around on the EMI website just to be able to find the number of the place I need to call even to ask about lyrics took me 25 minutes! And that’s just for one song!!!
And don’t even get me started on Chicago the Musical! I gave up an am going to have to call Samuel French, also a licensing organization but not a music publisher and find out how to get the lyric reprint rights. I wrote both tasks down for Wednesday because I ran out of steam.
And then I went downstairs to get the mail and I started to laugh. At another time in my life, I would have painstakingly had to make phone call after phone call to find out who owns these rights and secure their use for my books. Why was I so impatient?
Well, for several reasons. First, I was cold. Second, I was hungry. Third, it was the end of my day and so I was tired. Know that AA saying? HALT. Never let yourself get too hungry, too angry, too lonely, or too tired. And two out of four is too many. Well, I had two, but the real reason I was impatient has to do with my expectations.
Google and the Internet have set us all us to expect INSTANT answers, and when we don’t get them, we can get frustrated. I decided instead to read the mail, make a cup of tea, and let it go. At least this way, I’ll have a nicer evening. And Wednesday is another day.
P. S. Just heard back from my Mattress connection, and they DON’T represent the show! ARGH.
