Heavy telephone!

I can now admit it, I've been a telemarketer during my professional life. Between two ski industry gigs, back in early 1990, I worked as a stockbroker in Salt Lake and had to make “cold calls” to would-be investors. This was really hard work and those who have done it for a while have suffered and learned so much that they've generally done very well for themselves later on, but that's not the point. Since a typical telemarketer suffers from “fear of rejection” our trainers would tell us that the telephone felt very “heavy” to pick up when we were about to dial.

Today, I call people often, my receiver never feels heavy and I always enjoy reconnecting with past acquaintances and reminisce the good old days. The problem is that very few ever call me back, so that's when I begin to wonder: Perhaps, they simply don't like me; okay, we can't please everyone and if this is indeed the case, so be it! Another reason that my spouse sometime advances is that they're too cheap to call me on their dime; that could be true but I keep on denying it, my sense being that they're too busy doing exciting things and I don't ever happen to make it to the top of their list. I know that European friends my age exhibit a natural clumsiness with that tool and are not good at coordinating dialing with the sound of the tone.

I'm serious, they'd rather take their car, drive 5 miles to see someone for no good reason in order to chat, a much bigger expense in both terms of carbon footprint and money if we factor in the cost of fuel and the wear and tear on their vehicle. At the very least, I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt to those who never call. Another unlikely reason is that they're broke and the phone company just cut them off. This leave me with just one last good reason: Their phone receiver must be too heavy; that's right, just too heavy to lift...