He hesitated and then quietly replied, “If I transfer you to my supervisor, I will lose my job.” And that’s when two humans stopped talking and started communicating.

Dear Neighbor,

You can always be kind. Seems like I’ve been here before. Not a bad place to try and live. Especially if you’re frustrated and have been dealing with a Call Center, day after day, for 7 days. My tale of woe may one day be a clever short story, but for now may I just say it involved no propane delivery because of a malfunctioning gauge installed by the supplier and a cold, cold house.

I didn’t start off kindly. Definitely polite, if a bit curt, as I navigated the Call Center set-up, listening to the same delivery promise go unfulfilled day after day. By day three I realized that asking for a supervisor or management was meaningless as I only got another person repeating a variation of the same script, explaining that there were no local numbers to call and that the Call Center would schedule a delivery.

By the evening of day six, I thought I struck gold when I found a number at an Albemarle office and was calling them at 8:00 am on day seven. Sadly, the 336 exchange led me to a person in Massachusetts (not NC) who kindly transferred me to the only place I could get help. You guessed it – THE CALL CENTER. Except this time it was different.

The young man who answered began his variation of the same script. I started laughing and told him that I wasn’t laughing at him, just at the ridiculousness of this many day journey only to realize I really was at the mercy of a Corporate Call Center and that while I accepted that he was merely doing his job, I still needed to speak to a supervisor after the repeated promises of propane delivery day after day.

He hesitated and then quietly replied, “If I transfer you to my supervisor, I will lose my job.” And that’s when two humans stopped talking and started communicating.

I immediately said “don’t transfer me,” adding that it appeared we might both be at the mercy of a corporation. And we both chuckled.

And so I met Eric in Africa who brought the good news that although he could not talk to a human in NC associated with the propane company, he could see that there was a green light on my delivery order and that would normally mean that a truck was out for delivery.

From there we moved on to what normal meant. I thanked him for his honesty and candor and told him that it was important to me to say that not all Americans agreed with our current administration’s statements. He said he was aware of things changing in the U.S. I said that many Americans were appalled at what was happening in our nation. He said he had an aunt and uncle in our country who were very concerned. I said that I was not surprised that they might be worried. He asked a rhetorical question, “What has become of the land of the free?”

And we both had a moment of silence before he continued, “I do not believe we can solve problems through hate.” I replied, “Here we are, a young working person and a retired working person who have connected across an ocean because we found a way to realize that we had something in common; working folks vs. the corporations. I asked that he tell his aunt and uncle hello from a woman in NC who had many friends who had hope and were working for positive change and protection of their neighbors. He said he was excited to tell them of our talk and would contact them during his next break. He even said hello to my sweetheart and they spoke of the power of truth, love, and faith in a world we don’t always understand or accept.

We ended with warm goodbyes and I hope, for both of us, better faith in humanity. I told him to tell his supervisor I was just a difficult American woman who kept him on the phone. Eric was right about much more than the propane delivery that arrived that afternoon. Kindness is a virtue to practice regularly.

“Dear Neighbor” authors are united in a belief that civility and passion can coexist. We believe curiosity and conversation make us a better community.