In the big picture of spiritual development, what good could a telemarketer be? Reaching for the phone, I hastened my pace hurling the bags of food onto the counter as if I could qualify for the sprint races in the Olympic games.   Breathlessly I greeted with a pleasant, “Hello”. My spirits fell as the delayed response on the other end tipped me off that it must me a telemarketer.  Annoyed, I waited for his inquiry, “Mrs. Koogatack?”  The mispronunciation was the dead give-away – this total stranger was trying to sell me something.

He continued,”And how are you today?”  “I am just fine”, I replied curtly knowing that didn’t REALLY care about me.  What should I do?  I could mime my friend who responded to a “carpet cleaning special in your area” call by telling the caller that she had carpets in need of cleaning and if he could just hold on the the line she would measure her living room giving him the total square footage.  She proceeded to set the phone on the counter and continued with her day, leaving the would-be phone salesman “laying-in-wait”, thus tying up the phone line.

I usually try to be polite and respond with, “I’m not interested, but thanks anyway,” and hang up.  In a “how to handle telemarketers discussion” my friend asked me “why do you thank them for interrupting your day?”  She did have a valid point and I was annoyed and disrupted but the little pang of guilt would nag at me long after the disconnection of the phone line. I opted to follow the golden rule:  treat others as you would like to be treated.  So as annoying as they are, even telemarketers deserve a show of courtesy.  It could be another lesson in patience with bad timing!