Robbie:
It is a cold -10 C as I briskly walk to my class in HCH. I pass the smelly ball that is famous around campus, giving it a wide berth, and that’s when I see a young political science undergraduate 50 feet ahead of me on the path. He gets to the door, opens it and just stands there smiling.
I cry for him not to worry about it, but he’s too far away and just gives me an enthusiastic wave. He’s just holding the door like it’s his job. Does he want a tip? He’s letting all the cold air into the school. Man, now I feel like I should run, so I run. I say thanks, because that’s what you say, and with a chipper voice that doesn’t match the early hour, he replies, “You’re very welcome!”
Oh right, there’s the second door. Am I expected to hold that one for him? NO! I didn’t want him to hold the door for me, so why should I perpetuate this awkward and archaic tradition? I open the door with enough force that it swings back and is very easy for him to grab behind me. I don’t see how that’s any less convenient for him. That’s when he says “Doors, amiright?”
This kid then proceeds to hold the door for every single person coming into the class. With that blinding-white smile of a politician he says, “Do one nice thing today.”
Nobody wants you to be that friendly. Summoning my breath, moving my lips and pressing my tongue to the back of my front teeth to form the word “thanks” – it’s just all too much effort.
What is the point of a liberal democracy other than to free us from these responsibilities of gratitude? Leave me alone, dude! I proclaim we should never hold doors for anyone, EVER. When you open the door for someone, you close another one on their independence.
Matt:
Our world is filled with various acts of kindness every single day. Akon’s energy investments provide electricity to 600-million people in 15 African countries. Justin Trudeau’s selfies provide beauty to 35-million Canadians. Rebecca Black’s recusal from the public eye provides sanity to 7.4-billion people worldwide. Yet nothing can compare to the sheer wonder that emerges from holding the door for someone, for some people, for all people.
Holding the door is the purest and most genuine act a person can do. It is the acknowledgement that we all live in harmony, no matter how close or how far you are from the entrance. Holding the door is the highest development of our human morality. Indeed, the mere act of holding a door is the glue that in turn holds the fabric of our Canadian society together.
Cicero wrote that we “ought to contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness.” Maximizing these acts of kindness is the only remedy to bridge our increasingly polarized society. It is not enough to say we should hold the door “sometimes,” or “when they aren’t too far away.” The more we commit ourselves to the improvement of society, the more society will improve. With that I announce: One should hold the door for every and anyone at any and all times for people of any and all distances.
Three meters away? Hold the door. Two miles away? Hold the door. Doing an exchange in South Korea? You’d better hold that door. Automatic door? Hold it. The more we assert our Canadianism, the more we will ferment in our soothing bath of reciprocity. It’s all or nothing.
S.15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms asserts that individuals are equally protected. Door holders must protect the interests of all, not just those near the door. Either hold doors always or outlaw them.
