The Key to the Door

This week's quote is by Charles Dickens. "Auch eine schwere Tür hat nur einen kleinen Schlüssel nötig." Which being translated, means: "Even a heavy door needs only a small key."

I have found this to be so true, throughout my life. It is possible to worry away at a seemingly insuperable problem, then inspiration comes, and everything falls into place. 

The metaphor of a key opening a door is a common one in our society. Without a key, it is difficult to step through the door of new knowledge, new insight. It is no accident that the word is also used to introduce the translation of lines on a graph, or figures in a diagram. Without the key, the graph or diagram remains incomprehensible. But with the key, it all begins to make sense.

Keys come in many shapes and forms, both literal and metaphorical. When I was growing up, it was a tradition to be given the key to the door of your parents' house on reaching the age of 21. 

"You've got the key to the door / never been twenty-one before." went the song.

In this case, the key is symbolic of the entrance into the world of adults. These days, children grow up far more quickly, and are considered 'adult' at the age of 18. By which time, many have had their own latch-key for years. And have been engaged in adult behaviours for years, too.

A key can also be a nudge from God, a revelation. Reading the first two pages of Alfred Hall's Beliefs of a Unitarian was a significant key for me, unlocking the wonderful faith of Unitarianism. It really did feel like a revelation from God, when I read those pages, more than 40 years ago. I felt as though I was stepping into a new world, which suddenly made sense to me.

Books can often be keys to new worlds of understanding. So can films, television shows and the Internet.

They can also unlock knowledge we would rather not have. But once the door has been unlocked, it is not possible to 'unknow' the knowledge it has been hiding. We have to incorporate it into our lives and, if it has alerted us to some evil in the world, it is our responsibility to do something about it.

Like Pandora with her box, we have to live with the knowledge we gain. Fortunately, we always have hope, the only virtue that remained when she had opened the lid.