Four or Five Steps

A door is a simple thing. Two people and a door are not.

The rule sounds easy: if somebody is behind you, hold the door. The trouble is the distance. One step behind you? Of course. Twenty steps? Then you're holding a door for a stranger who now has to run, and neither of you wanted that.

The dangerous space is four or five steps. There you have to decide. Either you hold it and wait, or you let it close and hope the other person catches it. It's an everyday problem, and nobody has ever written the rule down.

Then there's what to say. In the US, the person behind almost always says thanks. If they don't, the person holding the door sometimes says “you're welcome” in a loud, clear voice, and that's not a kind sentence. It's a small punishment.

Context changes everything, especially the weather. Nobody expects a long wait in the rain. Anybody carrying two bags of groceries gets the door held from ten steps away, and nobody expects them to run.

And that little run? Nobody wants to do it. Almost everybody does it.