THE DEATH OF HOSPITALITY

I'm sure we've all had this happen. While enjoying a lazy morning sleep in or working at the computer in pajamas, there comes a knock at the door. When you answer the door, it's some talkative individual wanting to bend your ear for hours. There was a time when people dropped in unexpectedly at each other's homes and were welcomed. In our modern society, why is this no longer the case?

People are busy. All of us have places to go and people to see. The last thing we want is somebody wasting our time. Most folks understand this but certain individuals don't seem aware of the fact that they're boring us to death.

As in the song "Who Can it Be Now?" by Men At Work, people also value their down time. Nothing can irritate us quite like being bothered late in the evening when we hope to relax. Even if somebody is concerned about us, in the case of the visitor in the song, we still don't care to let people know that we wish not to be disturbed.

In this age of e-mail, Skype, land lines, and texting, people have no excuse to barge in on others for casual visits. Through social media sites, e-mail lists, and other online tools, anybody can contact us to arrange a convenient time for a visit. I feel that if it isn't a dire emergency, such as a neighbour seeing flames coming out of the roof, people should use those channels of communications first.

Sadly, there are individuals who bore us to tears. They just don't get the message, unless we rudely tell them to take a hike, that they're wasting our time. Like in the Talking Heads song "No Compassion", we might have to say to them, "Go see your analyst. Isn't that what they're paid for?"

I've mentioned in all three of my books how I enjoy uninterrupted solitude. Check out my first two paperbacks at the Bruce Atchison's books page. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's Books stock my latest memoir called How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity.

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