The story has been told of a new commander who was sent to an army fort on the American frontier. He soon was involved in a conference with an important Indian chief. Working through a translator, he nervously asked the chief a number of questions and was surprised to get no reply. After the meeting, he asked the translator why he had gotten no response. The translator replied, “That’s what we call Indian time. He has enough respect for your questions to go away and think about them before answering them.”

Maybe we all need to practice more Indian time.