Doors
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By Garrison.phillips May 16, 2010, 7:41 pm |
Doors can open, or close, to so many different things. A door can shut out the cold and the rain, let in light and fresh air, protect us from intruders and the dark of night, or open to a friend or a new experience. So it was with me and OATS. I read of their free classes in a newspaper, journeyed to the East Village and up to the somewhat dismal, second floor of a city housing project, opened a door and discovered a small room filled with computers and other seniors and an instructor who would help me open the magic door to the Internet and a whole new world.
I love doors and they come in all sizes, shapes and of every conceivable material from shatter-proof glass, exotic fabrics, finely carved wood to a steel fire door to protect us from an inferno. When I began to have my upstate retreat built in 1980, the first little building was a six by eight foot shed with a sloping roof. Later that fall I had what is now the main room of my house erected with sliding, exterior glass doors. Then, just before winter set in, I had the builder move the shed and, placing it on a foundation, attach it to my single room. (Plumbing and electricity would have to wait three more years.) But, wow! I had a two-room house but the little room needed a door and so that too was put in place. The first weekend I visited my retreat after the builder had installed the louvered door, I sat on a bar stool at my kitchen counter just gazing at it. I now had an interior door that led to another room, and throughout the course of that evening I must have opened and closed it at least a hundred times. Oh, how I loved the sound of that little click as the latch caught, sealing me, sometimes, in the living room and, other times, marooning me in the once-shed - now sleeping room. Well, time has passed, over thirty years, and I now have several doors in my six-room retreat but my favorite is the little louvered one. It means so very much to me. It marked my progress and still serves as a reminder of the many hours of overtime and the slow building of my wonderful retreat. It helped create a new world, a new experience for me just as OATS now has helped me enter the Internet World.
And so my love of doors continues with the wonderful world of computers. I discover a new door every day via googling just about anything and everything. Door after door after door. I love them. What is behind them? What lies ahead for me - or for you? So don’t be afraid - open one, you will be amazed or perhaps amused, astonished or even enlightened. And the very anticipation makes my heart beat a little faster and my doctor tells me, at my age, this is just fine, too.
I love doors and they come in all sizes, shapes and of every conceivable material from shatter-proof glass, exotic fabrics, finely carved wood to a steel fire door to protect us from an inferno. When I began to have my upstate retreat built in 1980, the first little building was a six by eight foot shed with a sloping roof. Later that fall I had what is now the main room of my house erected with sliding, exterior glass doors. Then, just before winter set in, I had the builder move the shed and, placing it on a foundation, attach it to my single room. (Plumbing and electricity would have to wait three more years.) But, wow! I had a two-room house but the little room needed a door and so that too was put in place. The first weekend I visited my retreat after the builder had installed the louvered door, I sat on a bar stool at my kitchen counter just gazing at it. I now had an interior door that led to another room, and throughout the course of that evening I must have opened and closed it at least a hundred times. Oh, how I loved the sound of that little click as the latch caught, sealing me, sometimes, in the living room and, other times, marooning me in the once-shed - now sleeping room. Well, time has passed, over thirty years, and I now have several doors in my six-room retreat but my favorite is the little louvered one. It means so very much to me. It marked my progress and still serves as a reminder of the many hours of overtime and the slow building of my wonderful retreat. It helped create a new world, a new experience for me just as OATS now has helped me enter the Internet World.
And so my love of doors continues with the wonderful world of computers. I discover a new door every day via googling just about anything and everything. Door after door after door. I love them. What is behind them? What lies ahead for me - or for you? So don’t be afraid - open one, you will be amazed or perhaps amused, astonished or even enlightened. And the very anticipation makes my heart beat a little faster and my doctor tells me, at my age, this is just fine, too.