Hi darlings, more door views if you dont mind .

As I was strolling through Berlin today around the big avenue of Unter den Linden I spotted, how can it not be so, a few more incredible doors. But as I saw more and more of that type of opulence and splendor (see photos), I suddenly realized how not only magnificant but how very intimidating these huge entrance ways are and probably meant to be so. As powerful architecture, an imposing door really makes the person, who has to enter, feel pretty small. And if such a door leads to the office of a doctor, lawyer, banker, bureaucrat or otherwise mighty professional, isn’t such a door really there to make sure the “little guy” stays in his place, remains low?

OK, may be I am being over analytical on this dreary cold day, that feels more like October than June, but what do you think? Have you not come to a door that you just didn’t want to go through, where merely pressing the heavy handle felt like a big chore , and you felt oh so unimportant suddenly? Well, may be that is more a European thing, and Berlin is of course full of such doors, tall , heavy doors that intimidate, but perhaps you get my drift.

Later on I thought about a world without doors! Boy, what would that be like? Not only would we get a hell of a draft, and the odor from the bathroom would get pretty irritating to say the least, but suddenly we would feel entirely exposed. Without doors no privacy, without privacy, no intimacy. But may be without doors, also less domestic violence, no? If our lives were open for viewing from neighbors and by-passers, would we all suddenly act nicer or become only more paronoid and more secretive? The door is taken for granted, yet it is a device that so much shapes our culture and how we deal with eachother. Does the boss leave his door open? And you know when he closes it, something is up. And are we not glad the doctor can close the door behind us when we get examined? I have been to doctors in India where all sorts of people barge in or not even leave their seat when it is your turn. Hello?! And love making? How much less love making would occur without doors! Even when most doors don’t properly shut and are not solid enough to really keep us from smelling the burnt toast downstairs or prevent us from hearing Joey´s new punk rock CD, but at least the door gives me the illusion that here I am my own boss and I can let my hair down and really be myself, together or alone.

Aren´t doors great, darlings?

A massive door part of an imposing entrance to a giant bldg on a grand avenue

This one here more decorative and playful in still, but the elaborate facade around the door again showing grandeur

All the gold surely is to indicate wealth and glamour and is made to impress

On a skyscraper as the Woolworth Bldg anything less than this probably would look silly. No use being bashful here.