Today, I had the misfortune to see as a duck was stood up for a date.
I was walking down the hill from school, and I saw him sitting there. He was alone, which intrigued me, as most ducks are seen in pairs during this season (see two posts ago). He was acting kind of anxious, pacing awkwardly, which made it quite clear that he was waiting for someone. You've seen them before, sitting alone at a table in a restaurant, or standing by the entrance, clearly not there alone intentionally, because they're constantly looking at the door, or looking around awkwardly, or checking their phone like five times a minute, standing awkwardly if they are at the door, often not really doing anything, because they weren't intending on being alone, and almost always fidgety, because they're really worried about being alone too long... or being stood up. Anyone who has ever waited for anyone in a public place knows what I'm talking about. Been there, done that!
Anyway, so I could sympathize with this duck as I was walking by. He had chosen a fantastic meeting spot, too, right by the stream, overlooking southern Provo. It was nice. Props to him. However, this apparently was not enough to win over his lady friend. He was really quite anxious at this time, pacing, and quite clearly calculating through that ultimate equation that dictates whether you should give it up and go home or stay in hopes that the person that you're waiting for will show up (i.e. [How much you actually want to meet with person X likelihood that person will eventually show up X how honor-bound you feel you are to wait]/[importance (or appeal) of other things you could be doing right now X how long you have actually been waiting X awkwardness of waiting situation]). I'm afraid that I may have tipped the scales for him, because we made eye contact, and he knew that I knew that he was waiting for someone, and so in an attempt to not appear desperate, he flew away instantly, weighed down slightly with missed opportunity.
Having just showed up, I didn't know how long he had been waiting there. I only know that it was far longer than he would've liked. However, I feel that I would have to know exactly how long he waited for her before I could determine the adequate amount of pity to give to him. You see, in determining the character of this duck, there are three aspects of the above "stay vs don't stay" equation that are not situational, and thus are completely dependent on him: how much he wants to meet with lady-duck, how honor-bound he feels he is to wait for her, and how long he waits. In judging his character, the only variable that we can really manipulate/judge him on would be how long he decides to wait for his lady-duck. How much he wants to meet with her is essentially a constant over the whole process. Supposing, then, that all other variables are constant (which, they pretty much are from the beginning of the waiting process until the end), we would find that, the longer he waits for her, the greater his feeling of being honor-bound to meet her. Generalizing, then, this sense of being honor-bound to his sense of honor in general, we find that, chances are, he is a more honorable duck the longer he waits for her, and I think that makes his situation more pitiable.
In other news, Zobe found a flower outside our window, then dragged me around the building (literally, all the way around it) to take a picture of it. Hope this was worth it, Zo.
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