Five Minutes Early Is a Love Language

Early people are not more virtuous than late people. We are just more anxious, and we have found a way to make it everybody’s benefit.

Here is the thing nobody says out loud. Showing up five minutes early tells a person that their time got considered before you grabbed your keys. It is a small gift, and it costs almost nothing except a few minutes of sitting in the car listening to the end of a song.

To the late among us

We like you. You are fun and your stories are better, mostly because they start with you will not believe the traffic. But the traffic was also there yesterday, and we all live here.

To the too early among us

There are limits. Five minutes is generous. Twenty minutes is an ambush. If you are at a dinner party while the host is still in a towel, you have turned kindness into an inspection. Circle the block.

The fair compromise

Text when you are running behind, before the time has passed, with a real number. Eleven minutes is a promise. Almost there is a work of fiction.