On Hold

Everyone at one point or another gets their life put on hold. By that I mean, you get put in a "holding pattern." Like an aircraft you are just circling around waiting to land. And like an aircraft, your life is "up in the air."

Getting your life put on hold is common. It can happen for a variety of reasons. Illness, accidents, moving, becoming unemployed, the list can go on and on. These reasons are related only by the fact of their occurrence and the effect they have on your lifestyle...and the pursuit of it.

Getting put on hold can range from being a minor nuisance to a major catastrophe. Minor nuisance examples are being put on hold on the telephone.

Over here whenever you ring a customer service hotline, you almost invariably enter a queue. Apparently, everyone picks the same time to call and complain or get a problem sorted out. When the customer hotline responds to your call, you are immediately informed that you have entered a queue and what your place is in it. While you are waiting the telephone version of Muzak is pumped into your ear. This drone of sometimes classical, sometimes "bubble-gum" pop music is interrupted periodically by a pre-recorded voice. This voice informs you that "Your call is important to us. We will answer your query shortly." I am sure this is meant to be reassuring and calming. It does neither for me. It does, however, give a much needed break from the "hold" music.

Major catastrophes are a slightly different kettle of fish. These on hold occurrences generally don't have the sort of time period that can be counted by how far you are in the queue. These on hold periods can last indefinitely. Sometimes for the rest of your life. 

What both of these "on hold" things have in common is that loss of control. They make you feel helpless, and in the case of the more major instances, you feel disoriented. In both cases you might as well be running on a treadmill. Both legs churning furiously, but going nowhere at all. 

In the case of the telephonic on hold, we can at least take comfort in the knowledge that sooner or later, we will actually get to speak to a real person.

In the case of the life on hold? We can always take comfort in the knowledge that at the very least, we don't have that damn music droning in our ear while we wait to get our life back on track.