An Assemblage

But too much release was not good—
one had to remain on one's toes.
— The Dinner Herman Koch

I don't like meetings and I especially abhor long tedious meetings. Last night's gathering lasted over two hours. The other eight participants appeared to delight in the slow process while I fiddled back and forth on the folding chair.

First I crossed my legs and then opted to spread them in front of me and stared at last years' sneakers. I do have a new pair, but the pink laces seemed too ostentatious for a church meeting.

I reminded myself to appear interested in the details, but instead I checked the baseball scores. Since I use Dropbox to keep all the pertinent agendas and meeting notes and assorted papers no one looked my way when I switched to the MLB app.

Since that worked so well I wondered about switching to the Scrabble app, but decided against that because I might never hear the discussion.

After two hours I noticed the flagging of other participants, but still they carried on and on. Perhaps I'm missing the gene that equates lasting through the length of a meeting with fortitude.

Suddenly everyone stood, held hands and began singing a simple hymn. I almost missed the ending—as I was busy composing a haiku in my head.