Doors, doors and more doors.
Not the seminal rock group. Sorry.
There are doors . . . and then there are doors.
Doors always carry the implication that there is something on the other side. Good, bad or indifferent, there is something there. Something you may want. Or not. Something someone else might want. Or not.
Doors are important.
Doors carry the freight of all kinds of emotional, psychological and philosophical import. Doors to someplace; doors away from someplace; doors to keep things in; doors to keep things out. Doors that define and doors that allow our consciousness to expand.
Yes, I do have some strongly held ideas about doors.
Doors express a whole plethora of emotions. You throw open a door to welcome loved ones. You open a door in trepidation. You lock a door for security. You close a door for privacy. You can even slam a door in anger.
But I believe that one of the more important doors you may live with is your front door. The front, or entryway door to where people live says something important to the world. OK, two important things.
First, a front door ought to tell the world where the entrance is located. Well, you may think, that’s kind of a given, isn’t it? You’d be surprised at how many times you approach a house and you really have to hunt for the front door. And not infrequently the front door isn’t the main door of use. In the house where I grew up the kitchen door was the primary door of use. If someone came to the front door we knew that they were either a stranger or a sales person.
Second, I believe that your front door should say something important about you. Do you like color? Do you like highly ornamented things? Do you like classic simplicity; or glass panels that allow the outside to see in? Does your front door express energy or reluctance to meet the world? All those things can be at least hinted at with the treatment of the front door.
I love a front door that makes a statement, like bold color that contrasts or complements the exterior of the house. When that happens, it tells me that those living inside are welcoming to the world, and happy with who they are.
I love beveled glass panels. In daylight they bring rainbows into the room. At night they refract and play with the light from inside and tell me that those living inside are pretty open to the world around them.
I love a highly carved door. It tells me that the door’s maker had a creative imagination.
I love front doors with a history: “I found this door thrown away at a construction site,” or, “I saw this door and just had to have it,” or, “This was the front door in the house where I grew up.”
Any one of a dozen stories can be told by a front door.
I not only think that front doors can say a lot about you, I believe that many times, they tell the truth.
Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes . . . she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.
A News Cafe, founded in Shasta County by Redding, CA journalist Doni Chamberlain, is the place for people craving local Northern California news, commentary, food, arts and entertainment. Views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of anewscafe.com.
