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The other day I was reading a few chapters of a book required for school. Just beginning to read the novel, I wasnt particularly interested in it. I started to catch my self zoning out (I'm ADHD) so I began to skim through the rest of the chapter, planning to finish it at school the next day. I was nearly done with the required reading when I came upon a certain passage that caught my eye.

The last man on earth sits in a room.
There is a knock on the door.

I don't know why, but those sentences, those two, small sentences really got to me. I guess I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that something so seemingly small, insignificant and meaningless could, in actuality, have a deeper meaning, a whole story, an enigma with endless solutions that are both right and wrong. In my opinion these 16 words are simple enough to be used daily and yet in this combination and order they are an epitome of literature, mystery, and human creativity.



I continued to reflect on the passage for the rest of the day and most of the next. It was a simple example of such a story as The Lady or The Tiger, and yet this one passage spoke volumes to me. How does it end? How does it begin? Why is there only one man left? What is he doing?

What is at the door?

This question, this Question of Questions is certainly the most contemplated, most asked, most wondered. However why is that question so important? Is it not as important as the color of the room? Maybe it's importance is equal to the reason the man was in the room. These are both questions of equal mystery, but still this single, five-word enigma is of greater importance. Perhaps the man himself knocked on the door. Perhaps it was the man's god at the door, calling him to paradise. Even stranger, the knock could have come from some strange, unknown beast. This tale has the potential for a myriad of possible explanations, yet we are left in the dark. So please I ask you these questions; What was at the door, and Why does it matter?



-SB