A door in general is a transition from one physical place or frame of mind to another. There are many types of doors within the world at large such as a physical door based in reality, metaphorical doors that present ideas, or spiritual doors which revolve around faith. Every type of door creates an opening in some sort of wall, be it in a building or cracking through a mental barrier that one has held. First we will examine the physical door. These doors typically consist of a sheet of wood, usually adorned with a design, that are hinged on a frame and thus create a doorway. These doors provide a sense of security for a household, a barricade against uninvited guests who may want to wander into a person's home or one from a parent or sibling from entering one's private space unless they knock and let themselves known. Some doors in a house, usually any door that allows one to enter or exit the home or impedes a person from walking in on another in the restroom, have a locking mechanism on the door knob which allows a person to feel more confident in their safety during times where they wish not to be disturbed. The type of locks on these different doors vary. While a door leading outside will have a lock that must be unlocked with a key that is unique to that door, a lock on a door inside the house such as on a bathroom or on a bedroom is simpler as it is either a small knob that locks when one twists it with their fingers or a button on the center of the door knob that locks when it is pushed and unlocks when the door knob is turned from the inside. However, there are other doors that are on a house that are not necessarily used to keep out other humans but are used to create an obstacle in order to keep out pests such as small wild animals and pesky insects while providing a comfort for the household. A screen door can either rest in front of one of the doors in and out of the house on the outside of the door frame which, when used, open in the same way as the door that it shares the frame with, or a screen door can be larger and coast to the side such as one found paired with a sliding glass door. The screen door, while keeping these pests out of the home, will allow for free air flow to fill a house on a cool summer evening if the wooden door is left open. The sliding glass door, in my personal experience, contains a lock that flips up or down for lock and unlock respectively and generally are used to exit a home towards a back patio or a backyard. The sliding glass door on my childhood home exited onto the back wooden porch, which extended to the start of our garden, where my father would sit and have his cigarette and watch the hummingbirds in spring or where we would barbecue burgers in the summertime. There are other types of sliding glass doors to consider, these being the automatic sliding glass doors commonly found providing entrances and exits to any major grocery or big box store. When one reaches the vicinity of the door, a sensor indicates that something is there and thus the two glass doors split at the middle to open and then close once that something has made it inside or outside of the building. These doors can then be locked and the sensors turned off once the store closes as to not allow anything to venture into the building after hours.

By now Oly, you have absolutely figured out how a door works in the home that you live in and therefore, you have opened and closed a door on a new experience. Doors are used metaphorically in language often when describing the opening of doors to new ideas and closing doors on things that happened in the past. A major event can open or close a door. A door can become an entrance to anything such as a new hobby, a major relationship, a death. Some people might state that one of the most important doors for a human being to pass through is the one from childhood to adulthood which involves leaving one part of your life behind and moving on to another. One could say “loneliness crept in through a door that I didn't know I left open” while describing a lost love that one dropped because it felt right at the time but afterwards they found out that they did not exactly know what they were missing by leaving that person. A bit melodramatic but I think you understand what I am saying. You may not know how to open a door at first, but once you figure out how to unlock it and pass through, you have arrived at the other side and whether or not you want to close the door on it forever or leave it cracked is up to you. A country could have an open door policy such as John Hay's Open Door Note from September 6, 1899 that proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries equally which would keep any world power from an absolute stranglehold of the trade with China. Now, the powerful countries in the world in that time did not literally have doors that could be open and closed surrounding their lines that were drawn in the sand but rather than one country funneling into China and closing the doors behind them, it was decided to leave the door open so other countries had equal opportunity to walk in and sit at the metaphorical desk of trade.

There is a final type of door that I would like to discuss and that is the spiritual door. I was never much of a religious person, nor were your grandparents, my father and mother, even though we spent the first twelve or thirteen years of my life at a Lutheran church nearly every Sunday. But that is a topic for another day. The spiritual door usually holds hands with the idea of the metaphorical door as it is routinely used to signify the communication and agreement with God. “Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep,” (John 10:7 King James Version). Jesus was the shepherd of the Christians, and as they were therefore the sheep, Jesus was opening lines of communication between everyone in belief to speak to him. It was his divine identity and purpose to point out that he was “the door” and not just “a door” for his followers to imbibe from. He was the Truth, he was the Everything. And he opened the door to everyone; all of his sheep. Sheep are the most helpless of the domesticated variety of animals as they wander with their heads down, eat with their heads down, and do not have any sort of instinct to find a home as say a cat, a wolf, or a badger has. They are not capable of finding their way without a shepherd to lead them. Sheep are quite susceptible to injuries and cannot defend themselves against predators. They will not scatter, they will not spread out, but they will huddle “For Thy sake [they] are killed all day long; [they] are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:36 KJV). One who believes in the gospel and indeed repents their past sins have entered the door that is Jesus. Later, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou has a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name,” (Revelations 3:8 KJV). Jesus had opened the door to the church in Philadelphia during the beginning of the end for those who are weakened, have given themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and has not denied such a name as his. Those who speak ill of his name may have gained strength but they cannot overcome a church that obeys Jesus Christ and is truly loyal to Him.

Now, we will go back to the physical door, specifically the front door of a home. Some people believe that the color of a home's front door speaks for the type of person or persons that reside inside. This is all abstract, subjective and quite ridiculous, but we will go through some anyway. If a person's doorway to their home is a royal blue, it is said that the family in that household are positive and prosperous but if their home is dark blue, they are grounded, calm and collected. Your mother has always wanted a yellow door on the front of the house which a person might find curious and wise, humorous and unique. A black door could mean sophistication like the dark black leather chairs found inside a fancy office while a grey door is found to be more intelligent and dignified while being a bit standoffish. A green door could indicate that the family that resides inside is eco friendly, healthy and ready to help their community while a brown door indicates the introverted and private. My childhood home had a deep red door which symbolizes that it is welcoming and inviting. To me, a color of a door means nothing and I never notice the color of a door unless it has something distinctive about it that makes it stick out. However, I do like to open up the off-purple front door of our townhouse to your nine week old smiling face while you are on the couch with your mother after I get off of work.