One of my favorite things about traveling is how you see an everyday object in a new way.  It started when I was in Salamanca, Spain with the suggestion that I look for the hidden frog in the facade of the cathedral.  I didn’t see it right away.  But I did notice the massive doors into the cathedral.  Just when I was wondering how difficult it would be to open those doors, I saw that there was an ordinary, human sized door unobtrusively cut into the bigger one.  So probably one would use the regular sized door for everyday entry into the cathedral.

After that I made a point of noticing the small door within oversized ones in other cathedrals in other cities.  Then I started looking for other contexts and settings, such as castles, walls, houses, and shops.

I noticed that some doors are several feet off of the ground, presumably entered by using a ladder.  There are tiny ones in the sides of castles, where one may have crawled through.  Some are painted bright colors, and others are ornately trimmed.

Invariably the doors are closed.  And that’s just as well, because my imagination about what might be behind them is probably much more interesting than the reality.  I wonder if I walked through one of these doors, would I emerge in a different world?  Or be plunged into an adventure?  Or go back in time?  These possibilities are much more exciting than any mundane explanation.

So whatever the real purpose, I enjoy finding them and admiring them for their utilitarian beauty.  I’m looking forward to discovering my next door.