Sunday, August 27, 2006

No time for a Thank You

This keeps happening: I hold open a door for someone, and they just walk through, not saying a word. It happened twice in the last few days, and it just happened a few minutes ago, as I was entering the neighborhood coffee shop where I write this.

Each time it's happened, I've always said - loud enough for the woman to year - "You're welcome." Each time she turned and was like, "Oh, Thank you."

Now, here's the question: Am I wrong for expecting a "Thank you"? Do my actions constitute rudeness?

I say no. Sure, some people are so distracted with their next task or destination that they're focused solely on that. But, I maintain that the same sensory nerves that tell them that they have to push open a door to walk out of a room still apply when they realized that they DIDN'T HAVE to push open a door to walk out of a room.

In other words: No excuses. You know damned well that somebody just opened the door for your ass. You're not Casper The Friendly Ghost. You didn't just float through the door, and the door didn't just open. Thus, someone opened it for you.

So say "Thank you."

5 comments:

Shark-Fu said...

Mmmhmmm...a bitch couldn't agree more!

Casper the Friendly Ghost?

Classic!

Toodles...

James Burnett said...

Preach!

I agree w/you 100% bro. Too many self-consumed rude-assed fools out there.

They're not focused. They're just not thinking about your good act 'cause they're the center of the universe.

And to acknowledge you and your act of civility would take away time that they could be spending thinking about themselves.

When people ignore me after I've held a door open for 'em. I make it a habit of saying "You're welcome," anyway. A lot of times they get embarassed and say stuff like "Oh, um, thank you."

But believe it or not, there are still some who ignore and keep walking.

James Burnett said...

PS. Thanks for adding me to the blogroll.

Jameil said...

show you right. i love when someone opens the door for me. thank you is the least i can say. so thanks!

DNastyOne said...

I do the same: a loud "you're welcome" because as we all know, some folks act like they EXPECT you to open doors for them anyway.