When you have reached the end of times
there may well be a friend who says
“When God closes a door, He opens a window.”
They will say this with sympathy
or with hearty good cheer or with
a determination in their voice that
this sentiment will put things to rights.
They mean it kindly, they really do.
But have they actually thought it through?
Ever had your fingers closed in a door?
The sharp crunching pain, the yelp,
the scramble to snatch your crazy ouchy
fingers back out from the pinching frame?
How about opening windows? First pry out the screen,
unstick the painted sill, grunt the sash up inch-by-inch
all the while the drunken partner or leaping flames roar
just behind you in the hallway. An open window could
just as easily signal an escape hatch as the gentle means
of egress your kindly friend wants it to be for you.
One more thing about doors:
sometimes shutting them
keeps the wrong things out.
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Afterthought:
Is it the benevolent, white bearded, biblical God-on-a-cloud
– OR – the dark and weaselly trickster-god Loki who is closing
and opening doors and windows for you? Your friend does not,
cannot know. Best to simply say “quite right” and leave it at that.
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