On Opening Doors

Last week, as I was walking towards the door of my health club, I heard the voice of a man walking a few paces behind me.  "Hold on, let me get that for you,"  he said, skipping ahead to reach the door first.  I thanked him demurely and slowed down, allowing him to gracefully open both doors for me, and appreciating greatly this small token of respect that come to I miss since leaving college.

But the more I thought about this innocuous-seeming event, the more I realized how singular it truly was.  Had he done the same thing merely four years before, I would've brushed him off, saying, "No, that's fine," or perhaps letting him hold one door for me while I held the second for him - and I was of the more polite, moderate brand of feminist!

I recognize that I live in a different world from most of my peers, in a sense, because God truly is at the center of everything I do (that's what I strive for, at least).  I feel that I'm definitively in the minority, however (especially among twentysomethings) of women who are more into traditional chivalry than modern feminism.  What courage it must take for a man like this to go out of his way like he did, to step out of the "safety zone" and open a door for a perfect stranger, with no hint as to her receptivity to such an action!

Look at that face! She was perhaps less receptive...

I'm sure my door-opener has forgotten all about our little interaction by this point, but it is emblazoned upon my memory: a reminder of how men have been pressed between a rock and a hard place by the rise of radical feminism - and it only increases my respect and admiration for those men who do treat women with more respect simply because we're ladies.

To all you door-openers out there: Thank you.  We women may not always show it, but we do appreciate you.  Keep on changing the world, one door at a time.