Rejection

I am not ashamed to say that I know rejection. So many of you are thinking to yourselves, “How can a handsome, charming, funny man like Doug ever know rejection?” Well I was married for 20 years. And I know I’m not all that with a popsicle and whipped cream on top. But I have known rejection in my time.

High school was a time of rejection. Odd thing was I have found out recently that what I thought was rejection was really playing hard to get. I hate high school even more now than I did back then! I went to college where I found that not all women were evil harlots determined to break my heart and ruin my life, but that one girl turned out to be my future ex-wife so maybe not. I’m just kidding. Most of the women I know are wonderful, sweet, kind, sexy and married to better men than me. Then there are the women in bars who give me their numbers that end up at “dial a prayer” where I pray for things like world peace, happiness for all the philanthropists of the world and women who give phony numbers to nice guys and end up with jerks.

The rejection I hate has to do with simple, happy guys who are merely trying to make a living selling perfectly harmless life insurance to people who really need it and can’t get past the people who do not have the vision to see that their people will benefit from the wonders of group term life insurance. Almost sounds like I have firsthand experience doesn’t it? This was one of those days when I longed for the kindness of the high school girls who laughed at me when I asked them to prom. It is not that the people I talked to today were uncaring or too obtuse to see the wonderful things I had to share. The only thing that really happened is that so many people said no. It happens. But this time it reached me in a way that rejection never has. It didn’t hurt. That was new. It wasn’t personal. It was just business.

What has happened to me? I like it. This evening when I stopped at a bar and grill for dinner I was ready for rejection. I guess leaving with a phone number was not what I expected. Why is it when you don’t care that it gets interesting?