As some of you may know, we moved last summer to a house on a cul-de-sac in a much smaller city than the one we’d lived in for 18 years. Today we had our first person knocking on the door (figuratively—my son was sitting on the porch swing at the time, so I imagine he just greeted him) wanting something from us.
Our old house was on a thru-street, near a busy corner, near bus lines and a busy shopping center area in the capital city of our state. We got LOTS of people knocking on the door for one reason or another. Courting votes, bearing petitions, fundraising for teams or trips, looking for work, pointing out that our windows were original to the house and wouldn’t we like to replace them? No. No we wouldn’t.
Since I work from home, I am usually around when people come calling. I have been known to hide behind walls and peek around corners, waiting for the dog to stop barking, which is my signal that they’ve given up and moved on. I have crouched as I’ve moved from room to room, as though there might be a sniper on a nearby roof with my front window in his sites.
I never want to give them my time. Mainly because I know that it is so incredibly unlikely it will be worth their time. (Or mine, frankly.) I don’t want what they are selling, I don’t agree with their politics, and even if I support the cause on the petition, it’s going to get me on some mailing list I will never get off of. I avoid them or tell them no thank you and slowly close the door on them. They are not going to get what they want from me.
Mostly, I hate being “sold” something so I am immediately on the defensive and set against them, even if their cause is just and wholesome. And usually, it’s not. There’s some weird angle, there’s pretending of some kind, there’s holding back information. And I’m not going to take the time to sus it all out. I’m busy. I’m working. I’m making dinner. I’m just not interested.
But what if I was? And what if the person at my door was my entry point into a whole new world, for good…or for ill? Let’s sus that out, shall we?
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