On Doors
Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under Aphorisms |
What are they but holes with hinges, lidded interstices? They are almost nothing, a frame around empty space, yet everything swings on them. They stand there indifferent, impenetrable, not caring whether we go out or come in. We hurry through them, never sure in doing so whether we have just accepted an invitation or ignored a warning, never even sure if we’re entering or exiting. Some doors open so fast and so wide we mistake them for abysses; others shut so subtly and so slowly we never notice them closing.
A version of this abbreviated essay appeared in the September issue of Ode.
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The separate doors of the Temple of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries and gates, faced opposite directions, and were kept open when Rome was at war. Augustus kept them closed for some thirty years (the Pax Augusta or Romana).
On the threshold of eternity only life can slam the door. Leonid S. Sukhorukov
When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us. Alexander Graham Bell