"If one door closes, another opens."
Doors are an interesting metaphor. And we use it so often that it has sort of lost its message. I have been thinking about this.
Doors have been invented so we can walk though walls. Clever, don't you think? No-one builds a room with no doors. If it has no doors it is not a room anymore. No doors - nothing very interesting inside!
I Could not really get this metaphor. What happens if I am inside the room and the door closes? Does it mean I am trapped in a room where I maybe don't want to be? Plus I will not be able to open the door that supposedly will open for me. Unless it means I have to open the door that closed to first get out of the room! Just a funny way to look at it.
Now, this whole metaphor works better if 'I' close a door. This will imply that I have decided that the room does not hold anything for me anymore or it is holding something that I don't want to be with or experience. Or I just want to get out of the room and don't want to return. (Obviously, then I have to open the door first before I can close it or it has to be open to start with)
Next, once I have closed a door, I must look for other doors. Just looking for other doors is not very interesting. Looking at a closed door does not tell me what it is hiding, (unless there is a sign on it).
Plus, to find out what lies behind, I have to try a door to see if it is open. If I don't try, firstly I would not know if it is open, won't I?
When you find an open door, you have to actually open the door to see what is there. Then you have to go into the room to experience what the room has to offer. Just going around opening doors will be very unfulfilling. You get a glimpse of what each room holds but don't experience anything. Like walking around a great buffer dinner setup but not picking anything to eat!
Something else to consider - with a door open, you actually have to move you feet, you won't experience anything by not walking into the room. In other words it will take some more effort from your side.
There is another side to this metaphor too. Sometimes someone else will close a door for you. You will then have a choice. Accept it and stay in the room hoping someone else will open it and you will like what they are bringing into the room. Or, the open door you are looking for is the one leading out of the room. Interesting, isn't it.
So - maybe the metaphor should read:
"Sometimes you have to close a door to enable you to find an open door."
Or
"You have to open a door to get out of a closed room."
Or
"Don't judge a room by its door"
