Thursday, April 17, 2008

Dear Pastor Too Important to Hold the Door

You probably don't remember me. I attended your church several years ago. My husband and I were members, regular attenders, tithers, and we served faithfully while we were there. I always speak very highly of your church, and know many people that currently attend. I have even led worship at your church before. Now, granted, we were never best buds or anything, and I can probably count on one hand all the interactions we've ever had with one another. And this was all before we had any children, so you probably didn't recognize me yesterday when we saw each other at Barnes & Noble. Yes, that was me. You intercepted me as I was walking into the establishment, 7 months pregnant and holding my 3 year old's hand, while balancing my 16 month old on my very pregnant hip. I was about to smile and say, "Hello, Pastor Blahbiddy Blah, remember me?" as you did the gentlemanly thing (heck, neighborly thing) and held the door open for me as I walked past you. But...that...didn't...happen. Now, I know we've all been in those awkward situations where you find yourself walking into a building and you happen to glance back and see someone approaching, but are SEVERAL paces behind you. Do you hold the door or not? That's a tough one. And had I been SEVERAL paces behind you, I probably wouldn't be blogging about this little incident. However, considering the fact that I was only 3-5 paces behind you...Yes you...I saw you glance at me...I have to ask the question: Would it have killed ya to hold the door and extra 3.7 seconds for me and my children?

Now, as a pastor, I would be willing to bet that you've probably run across this little teaching of Christ's once or twice in your career. And I know nowadays, what with women's lib (thanks, Gloria) and all, maybe you've held a door or two open for a lady in the past and had your head chewed off. But I'm gonna go ahead and take a wild stab here and say that the next time you (or anyone else for that matter-pastor, male, or female) see someone toting three, two, heck, even one child approaching, HOLD THE FREAKING DOOR!!!!


Sincerely,

Angela Buckland

(photo courtesy of Isabel Buckland)

10 comments:

Amy said...

Word....

You are a riot.
I love you so much!
Amy

Erin said...

Ange,
I love you!!

holly said...

o dear.
Pastor Report Card
Social skills D-
Common Courtesy D--
Intimidation Factor B+

Free Time ---doesn't play well with others.

Unknown said...

dang....stalemate.

Kristen said...

Holly's being too kind, as usual.

Tony said...

I want to be clear that this wasn't me! :)

Angela said...

As far as you know...:)

You all are really cracking me up. Holly, your report card is hilarious.

Elaine said...

I know who you are talking about ;)

shannon said...

I hate this! You know what happens to me all the time? It's the people I know who do stop to say hi, thus distracting me from the task of coraling the children, and then give me dirty looks as the children run into the street or knock the book display over. It happened at the little public library the other day - a woman stops me and goes on about me helping her with something and then stops to tell my 2 yr old, who got bored listening and got away cause I was carrying 12 books, not to raise his hand at his sister. We were standing in the middle of the road and she did not offer to hold the stack of books while I ran after my kids who were now in trouble for fighting in front of someone (albeit someone who knows nothing about kids or the trouble moms have day to day just getting from a building to the car in one piece). thank you for the outlet, Ang.

Kristen said...

I just want to say that I love that picture of you guys. That look on your face is priceless.