Progress is Prohibited

There are a surprising number of doors in this country. Big, solid, thick doors. They are very positive doors. Doors that are sure of their place and importance in the world. One might even venture to say that they are smug doors. And the role these doors delight in is to be closed. Closed with a gracious finality that is rather alarming. Now, of these doors, the firedoor occupies a special niche. These doors are the minions of the door world. They get opened so often, they don't have time to develop that particular permanent look that other doors have. The firedoors make up for this by exuding a sense of self importance and weighty discretion to inhibit the would-be door opener. "Don't open this one," these doors seem to say, "this door has been Closed On Purpose to keep Persons Such as Yourself out of Very Important Places that will only be Disturbed by the appearance of one such as you." The firedoor has a misplaced, inflated and intolerable sense of self worth that is particularly distressing for a habitually timid door opener like me. How am I supposed to get anywhere with these supercilious and puffed up apertures preventing my passage!?