THREE DOORS INTO LIFE

Dropping Keys (Hafiz)

The small man                                                                                     Builds cages for eyeryone                                                                        He                                                                                                      Knows.                                                                                                  While the sage,                                                                                     who has to duck his head                                                                         when the moon is low,                                                                            keeps dropping keys all night long                                                                for the                                                                                                 Beautiful,                                                                                              Rowdy                                                                                          Prisoners.

Series Description                                                                              No matter how grand the establishment, entrance must be made by a way that narrows to an opening through which one must pass, a threshold one must cross, and a door that either bars admittance or welcomes freely. Entry may be fraught with difficulty, is frequently regulated, and requires prior preparation to make entry possible (for instance, being in possession of the proper key). We will consider three such difficult passages into Life as well as some hints about where and how to find the “dropped keys.”

Session Descriptions                                                                        Session # 1: Dwelling Beyond Architecture.                                            “We dwell; therefore, we build architecture.” (Emmanuel Levinas) Sadly, then, we forget how to dwell. To enter the doors of life, first we need to reimagine dwelling.

Session # 2: Restoring the Soul of the Door of the Soul.                     While restoring a set of vintage church doors, a familiar phrase from Psalm 23 came to mind: “he restoreth my soul.” It got me thinking about what the restoration of doors might have in common with restoration of the soul.

Session # 3: The Red Door of Courage                                           Chance conversations with a client while painting his front door (red) prompted the discovery of a correspondence between the symbol of the door and the act of courage. But is this “threshold moment” all that is required to act courageously?

Session # 4: Listening Through the Door                                               Have you ever tried to get “a foot in the door” but you got “a cold sholder” instead? As with the door, the ear is not always open! What can we learn about the complexities of listening by comparing it with an open (or not so open) door?

Presenter Biography                                                                              Jeff Ediger is both an interdisciplinary scholar and a craftsman working in architectural restoration. He draws upon a wide range of sources–his past work in counseling and the hospitality industry, interdisciplinary study in the humanities and soul studies, and his craft of architectural restoration–to forge new tools and weave new images of soul-making. Copyright © Jeff Ediger, 2012