The Door

It had come up in one of our usual dinner time discussions. One of my friends was worried that the door to his house would come off the hinges and has to be fixed soon. He was generally worried about securing his place and was looking for some advice on kind of material to use, thickness of material, locking systems and so on.

Some of the experienced folks observed that it is really tough to secure a place and heaped a whole lot of advice - buy tough ones, secure with biometric-responsive locks, even go for a video eye and a security alarm!

While it is not my problem, it did set me thinking. Do we have to spend so much to secure our places? The lock, the material thickness, the premises of our place, and people around seem to be our biggest concern. Now, do we even need the door?

As a matter of fact, there is a place close to Shirdi (India) where the houses in the village have no doors! Seriously. There is also another village in Karnataka with similar no-door houses.

Dictionary meaning for the door is "a movable barrier to open and close something". Evidently, the keywords are barrier, open and close. 

Hmm! The need to put barriers, need to selectively share or give access, to whatever it is, seems to be the reason for the very existence of the door. The door is in a way sign of exclusion, and mistrust. Only if we mistrust, is there a need to close. Only if we close, is there a need to open. 

In a community, where the mind is clear of all cobwebs and mutual trust exists, the door can be shown the door! Well, no physical material can secure our places as securely as the collective mind shift can.

Now, what does it need to build such mutual trust? Patience and willingness to understand each other? Giving or sharing without inhibitions? Let us hear you out.