| A Bleeding Heart Liberal ?....or Just A Push Over ?
Yesterday I had a visitor...an unplanned and in the end, an unwelcome visitor. She was an African-American girl, age 20 who came to my door. Her knock was so strong and hardy that I jumped up when I heard it. When I opened the door, she talked so quickly that for a moment I had to strain to hear what she was saying. She greeted me by complimenting my hair...I hadn't moussed my hair that day so it was frizzy and big...yet she proceeded to say I had beautiful hair and then she'd touch her own hair, the weave "she'd just gotten" and complain that it was not as nice. At first I was startled by her presence...it is not everyday that we have ppl of color in our neighborhood...even I stand out like a soar thumb sometimes. But for some reason, I felt at ease with this girl, and from the words that I could actually make out, she seemed like she had a decent purpose for standing at my door. She was selling a household disinfectant cleaning product, and she listed all the ppl in my neighborhood who had already fallen victim to her salesmanship and bought the product. It supposedly could remove any stain in my home...to prove her point, she started spraying my driveway to remove the rust on the concrete. Intrigued, I didn't just brashly shut the door in her face, like I normally do to ppl who try to sell things to me at home. Actually, she didn't give me chance to shut the door or even politely decline her offer. She acted so quickly and even raised her hand and said, "give me five" when the rust on my driveway actually did come off. Smiling akwardly, I answered all her questions as she cranked out a dozen of them at turbo speed.
Soon...and I don't even recall how...she was in my home, scrubbing the title floor and then the stained carpet...and then she was sitting at the kitchen table and I was writing out a check for $35.39 payable to ADP....."what the heck," I thought. How'd I end up here with my check book open and some stranger sitting in my home chatting away???? A part of me bought the darn product just so she would leave and I wouldn't have to hear her talking anymore. And another part of me bought it to genuinely help her out. She was an inner city kid from Baltimore, who was hired by the inventor of the product to go from city to city and sell...it was his effort to get these kids out of the projects and working. She got paid purely on commission and she had 2 kids already at age 20. I'm not rich by any means, but I just felt that by buying the product, I was helping her out...it moved me, I guess, enough to fork over $35.
Was it an act of stupidity? Perhaps, but the fine print on the receipt says I have three days from the date of the transaction to cancel....most likely I will...and the African-American girl will not get her commission...but I don't think I will lose sleep over it...... |
