Our lives are full of doors. Other people may open or close some of them for us while often we have to take the initiative ourselves. From relationships to careers to rites of passage, we make decisions whether to turn the knob on real and metaphorical doors all the time. I remember standing in the the doorway to my kindergarten classroom on the first day of school. My mother nudged me forward and once I was inside, I never looked back; many years later she told me that made her very sad. Fast forward to the day my driver's permit was securely housed in my wallet, I was thrilled to finally open the door on the driver's side of the car.
Some doors are part of our collective history. Think of George Wallace blocking the entrance to a school or the prime minister in front of #10 Downing Street. You may be of an age to remember the actress Loretta Young, whose trademark for her 1950s TV show was a dramatic entrance through a French door. Harry Potter and his fellow Gryffindors must know the current password to enter their residence hall and Dorothy and her companions arrived at the door to the Emerald City. Ding Dong meant Avon was calling (as well as the witch is dead) back in the day when Fuller Brush also went door to door.
What have been the most important doors - literal or not - that you have opened or closed in your life? Going off to college? A breakup? Opening a book? Your first home? The emergency room? Just from those questions you can look back and realize doorways you have walked through, doors you have opened, those you walked past, those you slammed shut and those you locked and threw away the key. I'm a fan of Ivan Albright, whose painting style is called magic realism. One of his most famous canvasses is of a door. The title of the work is That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (that which I should have done I did not do). Ah, now, that gets us into opening and shutting doors, whether real or metaphorical.
Marilyn
You have opened many doors for others in your enriched life.
ReplyDeleteDo you really remember that kindergarten door?
I feel that when I dropped Brian off at Williams, and he closed the car door, that was the start of the current "troubles." I also think fondly of Linda coming to the door of her basement apartment to welcome me when I came from Chicago to visit her late on so many Friday or Saturday nights. She looked, ah, a dor able with her eyes half shut and her blond hair streaming down over her ratty old robe. I need to talk with you about a door I may close at CDK sooner than I thought.