Why Man Creates Doors

I hardly ever know if my roommates are currently residing in their rooms. When I walk into our living room, every door is shut. Puff and Jon usually keep their door closed, I close mine when I exit, and Pappy has a small index card taped to the wall signifying whether he is "in" or "out." Most of the time, I don't even see my roommates until after dinner, when we all retire back to the dorm to do homework, play videogames, or watch television shows on DVD.

The other day, while both Puff and I were in our respective rooms working on papers, he sent me an instant message asking if I was in my room. He had no clue that I had come back from class thirty minutes earlier. It was after this revelation that Puff posed the question, "Why did Man create doors?" So I started thinking about it, and this led to a rather lengthy discussion preventing either of us from actually doing work.

Man created the door for a few reasons. Firstly, it was for isolation. Man created the door because he didn't want to be bothered by others. You close doors to get away from people, to leave them in a different room and take them completely out of your sight. Man also created the door for protection, both from the elements and from others. You close the door to keep in the heat or air conditioning (unless you were born in a barn), or you close a door so that a rabid dog or angry cousin doesn't attack you. Man created the door for the simple need to be alone.

But after accomplishing this easy task of solitude-- accomplished by putting a hinged board in front of a hole in the wall-- Man quickly re-thought his motives. Do we really want to be alone, all cooped up and quiet? Maybe sometimes, like if Man has an important paper to write... or perhaps has a splitting headache. But the rest of the time, Man needs contact with others. We all crave social interaction in some form or another, even the most introverted amongst us. Sure, you could accomplish all of that without ever opening your door (thanks to the wonders of e-mail, instant messaging, and cell phones) but eventually your fingers will start to cramp or your phone batteries will die. Then where will you be? In a locked room... that's where.

Doors do nothing but separate families and society. When a siblings are angry, they slam a door or lock themselves in their room. Communities struggle to survive when everyone hides behind locked doors. And as Puff pointed out, Knowledge also suffers. Ideas and dialogues can't be exchanged behind a solid slab of oak.

And so, Man fixed what was wrong with the door's design: He made the screen door.

The screen door has all of the features of a normal door, with the added bonus of translucency. If you wish to be alone in your room, to tend to your own private needs, then so be it. But if you want to still be in touch with the outside world, while still maintaining an air of semi-privacy and protection, then you just use the screen door! A screen door, for those of you who have been living behind closed doors all your lives, is a rather simple machine. It's a door frame with a mesh, wire netting inside. This same technology was used to make screens for windows (allowing the warmth of the earth in, and keeping the scary bugs out), although I'm not sure which came first... And so, rather than Man shutting himself off from the world, he has realized his mistake and constructed a compromise. Not quite an open space, not quite a solid door.

But, Man sometimes wishes for more protection and less interaction with the real world. Perhaps they are afraid of talking to others, and want to remain in their shut-in world while still maintaining the illusion of freedom. So, some people have utilized the sliding-glass door. This door is merely placebo to ease Man's ills. While behind it, we think we are free... the illusion of actually being out in nature shines through (providing you cleaned the smudges off the glass), and yet we never have to hear or feel it. Nature isn't too fond of the sliding-glass door, since it's nothing more than a tease. Birds are constantly smashing into the door, each thud reminding us that our feeling of freedom is unfounded. Sometimes the feeling becomes so great that humans forget that they are, in fact, behind a closed door. They end up no better than the birds.

And it's from these three basic doors that numerous designs and theories derive. Each door we create is made for a specific psychological reason. The revolving door signifies Man's need for sterilized excitement; the feeling we are going on a ride, while always planted firmly in the strength and safety of a cylinder. The automatic sliding doors (found in most grocery stores) show Man's need to be welcomed where he goes. The doors open on their own the moment they sense your presence, and provide the feeling that you belong. Folding doors, like the ones found in closets or phone booths, allow Man to experience the disjointedness of life. Sometimes, everything is laid out for you, and you know exactly how things are going; everything's contained. And yet the second the order is broken, folded together in a chaotic mess of hinges and wood, our lives run wild. Things (or people) come out of the closet, we enter into a new world, Man is able to use the pay phone.

Every boundary or blockade that Man makes for itself is there for a reason. While some of these boundaries are mistakes, like the solid door, others are works of pure instinctual genius, like the screen door. Just remember... for every door that is closed, a window is usually opened. And that is a completely different subject.