Along with most of you, I am occasionally — perhaps three times per week — interrupted in my reading and writing by someone who calls our number to sell me something I haven’t expressed interest in or to ask me to participate in some poll. Kris has this stuff all figured out, and she knows how to report numbers of companies who are doing what they’re not supposed to be doing. I don’t know quite what to do. We have caller ID, but sometimes the “Unknown Caller” is someone I know. So I answer anyway.

I find these calls to be some of the most challenging moments in my life. I’ve told this story often, so let me begin with it. On occasion, after I’ve said something I shouldn’t have, Kris will say something to me now like this, “That wasn’t very Jesus Creed-like.” She’s always justified in saying this. When I try saying the same thing to her, her comment is always the same and justified and stops me in my tracks: “I didn’t write the book, you did.”
Well, sometimes I hang up the phone on the telemarketers and the like and wonder to myself if I was being very Jesus Creed-like. Usually I wasn’t.
But, they annoy me and I don’t think they are entitled to break up my day, barge into my home, simply because I am a number — if they call enough numbers in a day they’re numbers of successful sales increase. I’ve never once bought anything from such people, and I wish I could put my name on “don’t call that guy list, he’s likely to chew your head off.” But, somehow, they keep calling.
My best come-back, when I am in my right senses, is this: “Can you give me your home phone so I can call you back tonight?” I’ve never gotten one, and they usually get the idea that I’m not fertile ground for what they have to offer, and we separate amicably.
Even with laws protecting us from these intrusions (which is really all it is), some of them find their way into my day.
I got five spams on this account this morning from Viagra sellers.
I wonder, what do you do when they call?