Doors

One of the strangest sights I ever saw was something I discovered one day when bicycling in the English countryside. In what might otherwise have been open farmland, a new business had apparently opened up. It might just possibly have been a used-car lot – but no, this was a place where what they were selling was used doors.

All the doors were standing upright, as if they could be opened and shut and walked through. There were acres of them, equally spaced, and all facing the same way, in very orderly rows. There were all kinds of doors, of all colors – front doors with their accouterments such as knockers, mail slots, and peep-holes – and doors from other parts of a house or building. On some of them, there may have been doornails, but I didn’t know exactly what to look for. All I knew was that, whatever a doornail was, it was not alive. (But was it once?)

I couldn’t find any “doorkeeper” so to speak, on the premises – and I suppose there was not much danger of anybody walking off with a door without paying for it – but this only added to the slightly eerie atmosphere created by so many doors leading nowhere.

There seemed to be something very significant about this display of an object which, besides its everyday function, is so much a part of our language. The very expression “Open Door,” for example, conjures up a host of images and associations – mostly positive – unless it is letting in unwanted cold air, or hot air, or noise, or just insects. But, on the positive side, the same symbol conveys ideas of Welcome, of Opportunity, and of Freedom.

The term has also been used in International Relations, historically, with regard to China. Around 1900, a number of world powers (led by the United States, which, after defeating Spain, had only recently attained World Power status) declared their agreement to an “Open Door Policy,” under which they would all have equal rights to trade with China. (This, of course, was at a time when China, although a very lucrative market, was then still so weak and misgoverned that its people hardly had any say at all in the matter.)

You may also be interested to know that the Rock Band called The Doors got their name from a widely read book by Aldous Huxley, published in 1954, called The Doors of Perception, which was generated by his own experiences with hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD. This was some years before the use of these drugs became widespread, a trend which this book helped to bring about.

Incidentally, I had my own encounter with this famous British author, because of a book he had written earlier, about another, more basic, kind of vision – our own eyesight. It was called The Art of Seeing. Huxley himself had very serious eye trouble, and wrote about a method involving eye exercises which he felt had helped him, without the need for glasses. My own vision problems were much less severe, but I didn’t like having to wear glasses at all. I sent him a letter expressing appreciation for the book, and asking where I could get personal help with his method (which was called The Bates System.) To my delight, he actually answered in a hand-written letter, suggesting some private teachers.

I never followed up on this, since, in time, it became much easier for me just to keep wearing the glasses I already had. But I always thought of Aldous Huxley as the author of that Art of Seeing book. And 10 years later, when I was a student at UC Berkeley, and he came there to give a lecture, I made sure to be in attendance, and to get a front-row seat. He was not wearing glasses, but I observed much evidence that his vision was still very bad. For one thing, I could see that his notes were written out in huge, dark, block letters. Later I saw him in a local market – and he was trying to read the labels on some food with a large magnifying glass.

It was somehow sadly disillusioning to see how little this man, whom I had always thought of as an eyesight guru, had apparently benefited from his own teaching.

Finally, regardless of how you see things, or what doors you are referring to, there will always be a big difference between the prosaic INdoors and the great OUTdoors.