I took a sales job

I took a sales job.

Roof coatings. Bismarck and Mandan. I knock doors now.

I did not plan to tell you that. A man made me look.

He wrote asking me to stop charging him. Then again. And again. His health had failed. He had not read anything I sent since February.

I never saw most of those emails. They were being sorted into a folder I did not know existed. I found them this morning.

That is the part that stopped me.

Because when I pulled his record, every letter I ever sent him showed as delivered. Not one was ever opened. Nothing bounced. Nothing failed. Nothing warned me.

He was not ignoring me. My mail was not reaching him. And his mail was not reaching me.

Broken in both directions, and neither of us knew.

So I checked the rest of you.

Most of you never see a word I write. Not because you left. An inbox decided for you.

Men have been falling off the paid rolls all spring. Most never chose to go. Cards expired. Renewal notices dropped into spam. Men got billed for something they had stopped receiving and could not find the door to leave by.

I have been writing into a room I could not see.

"Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days." (Ecclesiastes 11:1)

I have been casting bread on that water for years. I never knew how much of it was sinking.

Here is the ask.

Hit reply. Type one word. Anything.

That one act tells your mail server this is mail you want. It puts me back in your inbox. It also puts your voice back in mine, because right now I cannot promise I am seeing what you send me.

It costs you nothing and it undoes months of damage.

If you have been meaning to go paid, this is the hour. Not because I have earned it. Because it decides whether I am writing to you next year or selling roof coatings full time.

"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." (Ecclesiastes 11:6)

Solomon knew about working two jobs.

That is where I am going next. I am starting a series on Ecclesiastes. The book for men who did everything right and still ended up asking what any of it was for. I need it. I suspect some of you do too.

Reply and I will know you are there.

-Adam