October 4, 2025
Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t shy about his philosophy of storytelling. His films weren’t just about murder, suspense, or dark staircases, they were about patience. He believed the audience should squirm in their seats, bracing for the shoe to drop. The tension was the real show.
I think about this quote beyond the movie theater, and honestly, it hits close to home. Life has a way of stretching us out, forcing us to wait, dangling answers just out of reach. The job interview callback that takes three weeks. The doctor’s office that makes you sit in the waiting room long enough to memorize the wallpaper. The endless seconds between when you hear your kid shout “Uh oh!” from the other room and when you actually see what disaster they’ve created. That’s Hitchcock’s kind of suffering.
But here’s the thing: he wasn’t wrong. Suspense is what makes the payoff land. If the knife came down in the first five seconds of Psycho, the shower scene wouldn’t be iconic, it would just be a crime scene. By drawing it out, he gave us time to sweat, to wonder, to fill the silence with our own fears.
That’s true in daily life too. When everything comes too easy, it loses flavor. Think about it: food tastes better when you’ve waited for it, accomplishments feel sweeter when they’ve been earned, and conversations carry more weight when there’s a pause before the reply. The suffering in the middle? That’s where meaning hides.
I’ve noticed this even in my writing here. If I rush to the punchline or cut straight to the moral, it falls flat. Sometimes I need to let you sit with the question, maybe even feel a little uncomfortable. Hitchcock would call that “making you suffer.” I call it giving you space to think.
Of course, I don’t always get this right. I’m a parent, I often try to rush moments because silence feels awkward or suffering looks avoidable. I jump in too quickly, offer solutions before the problem’s been fully named, or distract my kids when they’re wrestling with something. But sometimes, letting them sit in the tension, letting them feel the awkward pause, the not-knowing—is exactly what helps them grow.
So today’s Thought of the Day isn’t just about making people suffer for the sake of a cheap thrill. It’s about respecting the power of patience, of holding the moment, of not always reaching for the fast-forward button. Hitchcock may have been talking about cinema, but his lesson applies far beyond the screen.
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