For the most part, whenever someone knocks on my door, I go to it and open it up to them and tell them that in the future they should simply come in. Most people when they hear this, when they come a second time, knock again. This time, if I know they’re coming, I’ll yell at the door and tell them to come in. If they don’t come in then I’ll go to the door and open it up to them. At this time I’m more firm and tell them I really would like them to simply come in when they get to the house.
It seems no matter how many times I say this there are still people that will always knock. It’s like they can’t be trained to do anything different. They’re so engrained thinking that it’s rude to walk in unannounced that they can’t not knock.
I hate that. I hate that we as a society have gotten so closed off in hospitality and privacy that people can’t come in and participate in our lives without having to give a warning first. I understand there are boundaries, but why can’t we live outside the norm and live openly with each other and tell people when they’ve crossed the boundary instead of keeping the road closed and only opening the roads when we want them.
Whitelist everything and blacklist things when they come up instead of blacklisting everything and whitelisting when needed.
My desire for every house I live in to have an open-door policy. People feel like they can come over when they want/need and they don’t have to knock. Sure, if it’s in the middle of the day, maybe text before you come over, but if you’re invited over for dinner, for goodness sake, just walk in the door.
Perhaps a little thing, but it seems so important to me to destroy this notion of privacy and courtesy of knocking and waiting for an answer.
Radical hospitality. Let’s stop thinking so much about how people think and what’s feels awkward and let’s get people into our lives.