poor guy.

at the cibc branch by the stationery store where my journal has its po box, there's this security guard who fills his day essentially by playing doorman. when he sees people coming (or leaving), he scrambles and to open the door for them. i'll bet it wasn't what he was trained to do in security guard school.

it's not really the fact that he's doing a menial task that doesn't really need to be done that makes him so pitiful, though. he just seems so very desperate for meaningful human contact that he'll take what he can get.

not everyone appreciates the door-holding, either. see, he opens it from the inside, and holds it open -- from the inside -- so you actually have to squeeze past him to get inside, through a door that isn't necessarily accommodating to the width of two grown people, depending upon how *ahem* 'grown' the other one is.

on top of that, though, he's a skinny balding man with large glasses, crooked teeth and pathetically wispy facial hair. it's not difficult for some people judging on appearance alone to find him just a bit creepy or off-putting. the other week he smiled and waved to a baby and the mother responded -- it's unclear whether it was instinctive or conscious -- by stepping away and protectively gathering the child in her arms.

i do my banking at the atm there whenever the journal gets cheques. today there was no cheque in the mailbox. when i walked past the security dude, i hastily shook my head to indicate to him that this week, he did not, in fact, have to open the door for me. he nodded and faked a smile, but his eyes genuinely gave a look of disappointment.

i feel sorry for him. he seems so unfulfilled. i find it regrettable that people wanting to rob banks have put him in the position where he is pre-emptively needed but is generally left with absolutely nothing to do. i wonder what he pictured himself doing as a career before he settled on security. i also wonder how he would respond in the event of an actual robbery or crisis.