Do Not Enter
“Do Not Enter,†cautions the sign on the red door. John stood there looking at it, wondering what to do. The guy at the bar told him that the first red door was the fastest way out of The Blue Bike Shop, but surely he must have been mistaken. As John looked down the hall, there were nothing BUT red doors, with the same white sign, with the same “Do Not Enter†boldly lettered red on each.
“What a strange place,” thought John. ” Nothin’ but blue bikes and red doors…”
The Blue Bike Shop was a brand new shop in downtown Nowhere; filled with blue bikes in every configuration imaginable – trikes, unicycles, bicycles built-for-two, mountain bikes, racing bikes and blue peddlers for the leisurely traveler.
The Blue Bike Shop had quickly become a hot spot in Nowhere. After all, The Blue Bike Shop served lunch and drinks at the Bike Bar. It was a great excuse for John to check out all the blue bikes, and dream.
John had grown up in Nowhere and had never been outside its city limits. John lived down Rural Route 7, a long dirt road, which eventually, if you stayed on it long enough, would take you out of town.
Today was the day John was going to begin that ride. Impulsively, after lunch at the Bike Bar, John decided that he was ready. With every dollar he had saved in his pocket, from his job at Solo Staffing Services, he was going to buy that blue Schwinn he had his eye on.
When he handed the money over, the cash in his hand quickly became the bike in his dream. As a celebratory gesture, the clerk who sold him the blue bike stepped behind the bar and handed him a shot of Don Julio. With John’s throat on fire and his heart pounding with excitement, he asked his server, “Tell me, what’s the fastest way out of town.”
The clerk smiled and said, “Go down the hall, and take the first red door you see. It’s the fastest way.”
Several minutes had passed as John stood in front of the red door with his new shiny blue Schwinn, reflecting on the clerks last words.
“Why in the world, would this guy have told me to go through this red door if it was not the right door?” John thought.
John had never walked through a door that said “Do Not Enter” in his life. He also had never spent his entire life’s savings on a blue bike. John looked down the hall at the other red doors and again the “Do Not Enter†signs, and then he reached for the knob to his own.
“What the hell. All my life, people have been telling me ‘Do Not Enter’ this, or do that, or try this, because it is too hard, too risky, too much work or too… something. It’s time I try to go somewhere.”
When John opened the door, this is what he saw.
One Response to “Do Not Enter”
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This is a great message. And the way you deliver it, makes it even more powerful.. In the end, it is only ourselves who are responsible for what we achieve in our lives… and sometimes we have to do what we know is the most scarry or the most difficult… Events in our lives that change us, change our souls inside and make us different people. Take a step, and your path will be more clear. The journey can begin. Toast to you Lisa and Happy 4th of July.