On Elven Patience

The present discussion of long-term neurological adaptation requires some consideration of temporal perception among long-lived races. Elves are frequently described as patient. This is only partly true.

An Elf may wait sixty years for a legal dispute to resolve because sixty years is a tolerable inconvenience. The same Elf may become visibly irritated if tea is served three minutes late. Longevity does not produce patience so much as it changes which delays are considered important.

I once waited forty-five minutes outside the office of an Elven archivist who had personally spent eleven years deciding whether to reorganise a single shelf. When I complained, he informed me that I was “in a hurry.” He was correct, which did not improve the experience.