and the whole city was gathered around the door.
a door promises
more than a view
Kafka knew more than most
the futility of a guarded door
where we come to perish
still a door beckons
a new beginning
absolution
healing
without even a crack
hopes rise after being dashed
even fearing the worst tiger
we gather in expectation
belovedness personified restored
a cry
more doors
we surge
exploding roofs
assailing heaven
searching
claiming
for one
for all
they healed
now me
now mine
then they
for good
we riot
A doorway is a beginning. There is a sense in which we are perpetually attempting to leave our wilderness behind to be able to enter a protective door and have it hold against the hordes.
There is another sense in which we need to leave our stuck place that keeps us bottled up. A door to a great outdoors, even with its suspected dangers, is worth the risk to leave our captivity behind.
Doors have an on-going fascination to cats and dogs. Also to us. We are also perverse enough to always see more wholeness on the other side of the door.
There is hyperbole regarding the number of people gathered, but it accords with the sense that what brought them has an on-going energy. It also sets up a retreat that will be needed because the only way to continually expend energy is to gain it.
To have the whole community gathered in a doorway reminds us of the pressure of a preferred future reaching back through a dove diving in front of an equivalent to creation’s, “It is good”.
Why this is a stand-alone verse is unknown. It could be removed from the text without loss of meaning. As long as it is here we might as well remember another gathering in Sodom around a house (Genesis 19). Rather than gather to call out a curse, here folks gather to enter in for a blessing.