The Held Door
Holding a door is a tiny interruption of one's own importance. The next appointment remains ahead; the pavement is cold; somebody else's awkward load takes longer to move than expected. For a few seconds, the person with a free hand allows those facts to rearrange the order of the morning.
Such gestures are easily praised and just as easily used to avoid larger questions. A building should have an accessible entrance. A delivery worker should not have to depend on a stranger's good mood to complete a route. Courtesy cannot repair every arrangement that makes ordinary work unnecessarily difficult.
Still, the inadequacy of a gesture is no reason to withhold it. I like the coexistence of the two responsibilities: improve the doorway, and hold it open while someone is struggling through. The person outside should not have to wait until we have settled which kind of help deserves the greater credit. Their trolley is already at the threshold.