Look, Vic, I don't want to be difficult. Truly. It’s just that every time we get to this point, it’s like... like static on an untuned radio. Just this constant, white noise humming under everything. It doesn't stop. My manager wants the quarterly reports filed by Friday, but it's hard to focus when the background is always this loud. It’s not even a matter of being angry. It’s just constant.
It’s just the way things are, Frank. You can't expect the noise to just vanish because you have a deadline. My boss at the firm expects the same thing, but that doesn't change the fact that the paperwork is still sitting there.
But that’s exactly it. You can't just accept it as part of the landscape. If the noise is constant, you're just living in a mess. It’s not about the deadline, and it’s not about the paperwork. It’s about the fact that the situation is unresolved. It’s just sitting there, vibrating. I'm not even angry, really. It's just that nothing actually moves. It’s just a lot of empty noise.
Moving doesn't always mean fixing. Sometimes things just sit there. You can't force the paperwork to file itself any more than you can force the gears to turn. It's just the state of things, really. Does it really have to be anything more than that?
It’s easy to say that when you aren't the one feeling the vibration in your teeth. If the gears aren't turning, then what are we actually doing? Sitting in a room, waiting? I’m not being difficult, but there’s a difference between accepting a situation and just letting it rot. It shouldn't just sit there. If the machine is supposed to work, it should work. Otherwise, we're just making noise.
Rotting is a bit dramatic, don't you think? Everything has its own pace. My father’s old watch used to tick differently every few hours, but it still told the time. You're looking for a resolution that might not even be necessary to keep things running.
Your father's watch was a mechanical object, Vic. It had a purpose. This isn't about wanting a perfect resolution; it's about the fact that the current arrangement is lopsided. It's not dramatic to notice when things are out of alignment. I'm not even angry, but it's exhausting to pretend the tick doesn't matter when the hands aren't even moving. It's just a lot of wasted energy.
Energy is spent whether you use it or not. If you're exhausted just from noticing the misalignment, then you're the one losing the fight. It’s just a discrepancy in the ledger, Frank. It doesn't mean the whole system has collapsed.
A discrepancy in the ledger. That’s a nice way to phrase it. It makes it sound like a math problem rather than a real problem. But you can't just balance it out by ignoring the gap. If the ledger doesn't match, the whole thing is technically wrong. It's not a fight if the scales are just weighted differently. It’s just... inefficient. I’m not being difficult, it's just a matter of principle.
Principles are expensive. You can't always afford to balance every ledger perfectly. People want everything to match, but life is rarely that tidy. If you keep staring at the gap, you might miss what's actually happening around you. It’s just a difference in the numbers.
It’s easy to be philosophical when you aren't the one paying the difference. If the numbers don't match, there’s a hole somewhere. You call it a difference, but someone has to live in that gap. My sister's entire life is basically a series of unaligned numbers, and she’s the one dealing with the weight of it. It's not that I want everything to be tidy. It’s just that there’s a cost to the imbalance.
Your sister will find a way to manage, just like everyone else. You're acting as if there's a single person responsible for the weight. The gap exists, Frank. It’s there. But someone has to decide whether to fill it or just walk around it.