I got an email on Facebook from a somebody I don’t know (I friend everybody except scammers and phone sex operators) at a writer’s organization I’ve never heard of the other day. It read:
I’ve heard good things about you for awhile.
Maybe it’s good timing that you just added me as an FB buddy.
Our scheduled speaker for November 14th just had kidney failure — and I’d be your new BFF if you could jump in and man the guns for that Saturday at about 6:30 PM.
I hope you can help a local boy out, here. ;-))
I replied that I appreciated the invitation, but that I would have to pass. Here’s what he wrote back:
I’m sorry and a bit surprised.
Good luck in all you do. Keep me apprised of your successes.
Maybe I’m just tired, or in a bad mood, but I have to admit, his reply really ticked me off. He’s “a bit surprised?” What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why should he be “a bit surprised” that I’m not at his beck-and-call? So here is what I wrote him:
Why are you “a bit surprised?”
I guess that you assumed that I’m always available for any group that asks me to speak, any time, any where.
Or perhaps it didn’t occur to you that I might have other obligations on Nov. 14…or that I might be on tight deadlines to deliver a script and a book by the end of November….or that I have spent too many Saturdays away from my family lately…or that I might have any number of other reasons for having to pass on being your speaker.
Or perhaps you simply assumed I’d drop everything for you and were “a bit surprised” when I didn’t.
I don’t know your reasons. But I was “a bit surprised” by your comment.