Hooray for us (and why not?)

Photo by Hannes Johnson on Unsplash

“Hi, this is Linda Hill” said the voice on the other end of the call I’d just answered. A slight pause from Linda’s end gives me the opportunity to ask, “Do I know you, Linda?”  “Linda” does not directly respond to my query, but marches on with “You really need to know about our great offers for burial insurance.”

Ugh!!  I precipitously hang up, feeling irritated that once again, Ms. Pollyanna is taken in by a familiar-looking phone number. OK, OK, I can’t lie since my iPhone gave me warning of “unknown caller.” However, it was such a familiar phone number that I elected to override the know-it-all-iPhone-spam-gods and answer anyway. (Sucker, sucker!)

My frustrated (and angry) hang up leaves me feeling conflicted (and, likely, with elevated blood pressure.) Yeah, yeah, I try to perceive people making spam phone calls as challenged humans (well, kind of like you and me), folks just trying to make a buck. (You ever done anything just to make a buck?) It’s clear to me, now, that my erstwhile seller of burial insurance, Linda Hill, was actually a programmed digital voice (no!) trying to reel me in. The person who programmed my dear friend, Linda, likely had a human heart and probably also needed to make a buck. And knew, clearly knew, they were facilitating a phone scam. (But who cares when you gotta make a buck? Right?)

Holy conundrum! Let’s just cut to the chase! In my heart of hearts, there’s a part of me wanting to demonstrate to you, and myself, that I can hold on to my values even while being scammed. As the scammed, can I dredge up some compassion for the programmed, robotic, and deceiving voices aimed only at bilking this poor schlub (AKA as Jan?)

I JUST realized I’m asking the wrong questions! Howza ’bout some compassion for myself, for ALL of us, on the other end of the unwelcome scammers’ phone calls? We experience anger, frustration, and downright pique. Likely underscored by a rise in our collective blood pressures as a result of our often-heated responses. Personal rejoinders such as “Get Lost!” or possibly, “#!@*&%”, do not soothe my internal reactive flames. (Do they?) I don’t want, or need, the physical and emotional toll stimulated by the ploys of scammers. (Let’s get real! If you want that toll, I’m very, very concerned about you!)

No way do we want to incur more personal stress….

Without an available digital magic wand, those irritating scammers will continue as the bottom-feeders in our phones’ universe. So it’s time to pull on our big-girl and big-boy self-compassion anti-scammer shields! A shield, that for the most part, helps protect us from overreaction, leading to inadvertent physical and emotional self-harm and keeping our collective blood pressure in friendly territory.

How does said shield work? (Excellent question.) A simple straightforward reply to the scammer “Sorry, I don’t believe you” and, oh, by the way, “have a good day.” Clunk goes the cell phone connection and yes, it’s true, a bit of a smile begins to play on my lips. I-am-not-so-powerless after all, and don’t need to damage my emotional and physical well-being due to the heartless machinations of scammers. I don’t. You don’t. We don’t. A clear line in the sand has been drawn (often called, “no”) and my instantaneous-vitriol production is tamped way, way down. No muss, no fuss, no ulcers, or skyrocketing blood pressure. Hey, it’s a good time to just continue enjoying my lunch or staring out at the beautiful foliage…