I recently had to take over as the neighborhood association leader, and I was supposed to get a handover from my neighbor.
We had already agreed on doing it “this Sunday,” but we never decided on a time.
To be honest, I kept wondering, “So… what time are we actually doing this?”
The day before, I happened to run into them, so I asked,
“What time works for you tomorrow?”
They replied,
“Anytime is fine.”
Since I had plans in the morning, I suggested,
“How about 3 PM?”
Then suddenly,
“Hmm… 3 PM, huh. I was actually thinking of visiting a grave in the afternoon tomorrow.”
(Wait… I thought anytime was fine?)
After thinking for a bit, they said,
“Well, I’ll just go in the morning instead. It’s fine, it’s fine.”
So we ended up meeting at 3 PM.
And on the day…
The whole handover took about five minutes.
…Wait a second.
Couldn’t we have finished this during the time we spent figuring out the schedule?
That was the moment I truly understood how deep the phrase “anytime is fine” can be.