Holding the Door Open

Holding the Door Open (c)

By 

Michael Casey

Now it's 2pm as  I begin, I've just been holding the door open as my small daughter 

goes on her wayback to University. So obviously I'll miss her after the Summer 

together, though graduate big sister is herefor a year with her new Birmingham job. 

And we did get a postcard from Kerry from my Lawyer sister-in-

law and her daughter, they had made it back to Cromane Lower Killorglin Kerry, 

and parked outside Jack's which used it be the coastguard station. 

Go Google earth, the most beautiful spot on earth.

When you go to a bar, you hold open the door to let others in, and if it is your 

local, to let your friends and neighbours in. You don't slam it in their face, you are 

a gentleman and let others in, and if you've worked in a hotel you give way to let 

guests or housekeeping pass. 

It's like a dance, smooth and effortless. and incidentally a good worker is like a 

ballet dancer though not wearing a tutu, just smooth and graceful, because he 

knows what he is doing, just as I look out the window and see one good neighbour 

helping another. Smooth and Graceful.

So, the question is, do you hold the door open?  I did literally for 3 years at 

Crowne Plaza NEC Birmingham, the hardest job of my life, but the most fun. 

Though some may say my daily battle with 

pain and Tinnitus noise, is the greatest battle of my life. 10 years’ worth of pain 

maybe, and maybe 5 years of Tinnitus, which is getting worse, But I digress.

If you are an Altruist like me, I'm also catholic with a small c, then you want 

people to have a chance, and besides if some think the family came from a Kerry 

pigsty, you enjoy poking them in the eye, metaphorically,

 YOU ARE AS GOOD AS ANYBODY as my mum said,

 and yes academically mum's 

kids are top of the tree, and the next generation they too are no slouches.

But to the point, that guy at the door, that was me, letting you in, greeting you at 

the door. If I am just stood there, don't look down on me. 

The guy on security at the door, he'll save his crew, and not 

because he's paid to, he'll do it because you bothered to smile 

and say hello every time you came through the door. 

It costs nothing to smile and say hello, it costs nothing to share a joke,

 or just a wink as you pass through. 

And yes CPNEC Birmingham 20 years ago when I opened it was known as the 

Friendly hotel, it was Our hotel, the staff called it that, 

me and Vicky the Cleaner and all the rest.

You can emulate that happy feel wherever you are, working or studying, or any 

place you go, though I go nowhere such is the random nature of my pain. 

In my play Shoplife, written in 1988 maybe, Bernadette is based on my shop 

worker sister, now gone, Bernadette was a Born again Shop Assistant, 

and my sister did read it once and say it was so like where she worked. 

That's why the play Shoplife is 

so good, it was accepted for Production but never hit the Stage, 

that's why I'm sat here on the Wrong 

Side of the tracks metaphorically, instead of where Rich Birmingham folks live.

It's all about thinking, this is good for me, but hang on, my friend Shirley might be 

interested, or Jack can do that. Networking is the horrible modern word. 

Pass the word on, hold the door open for somebody else, and not just your clique, 

give everybody a chance. Don't be angry or jealous because

somebody else has done well. 

Don't kick as chair and say BASTARD, because somebody did well, 

instead, say God Bless, and maybe me one day.

 Because Envy and Jealousy and Love of Money too

will just Blacken your heart. 

But God Bless You, is a ray of Light, and isn't that the best way?

p.s. took 30 mins