“Be an opener of doors”

“Be an opener of doors” -Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man I’ve always thought of as someone really smart, who cast about looking for something to latch onto and, sadly, never really found it.  That said, at some point of my dimly remembered youth, I read those words and

they stuck with me.   In my youth, I boldly rushed in, whipped the door open without consideration of consequence and took some nasty falls.   I still open doors when presented with the opportunity, but I “count the cost….” first – most of the time..<g>  Here’s a collection of doors, with their real and imagined stories behind, seen in the last few days.

Gold Hill, Shaftesbury (several following)

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And for those who prefer their entrances a little more pretentious, nay, grandiose…

To close this one out, and even though I don’t espouse all that he has to say, it may be interesting to consider the words of Mark Rice, a Scottish rocker with Metallic Dreams.  Mark speaks of a, or the, definitive moment in his youth……

“I was ten when I heard the music that ended the first phase of my life and cast me hurtling into a new horizon. Drenched to the skin, I stood on Dunoon’s pier peering seawards through diagonal rain, looking for the ferry that would take me home. There, on the everwet west coast of Scotland, I heard it: like sonic scalpels, the sounds of electric guitars sliced through the dreich weather. My body hairs pricked up.  To my young ears, the sound of these amplified guitars was angelic (although, with hindsight, I don’t suppose angels play Gibson guitars at ear-bleeding volume). A voice that suggested vocal chords of polished silver soared alongside razor-sharp overdriven riffs. I knew that I was hearing the future.”

And, of Isaac Asimov:  “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”

May you find the essential door, or someone who appears at your own, to change your future for the better –

MB