an interesting story or just a door?

[originally published July 9, 2009]

Inspect the door in the photograph, discover its intricacies, and consider...how many times has this door been opened/closed, who constructed the door, who created the elaborate door knob, how many pedestrians has this door seen walk past it? Think about the possibilities, realistic or ridiculous.



The subject of this photograph is a simple door in Harpers Ferry, WV; the basic function of a door is something familiar to all of us. But this exercise isn't about a door, it's about the "what ifs" behind an object. We go through life allowing most of what we see to pass through our brains as quickly as a single exhaled puff of cigarette smoke fades into its surroundings. It's a natural reaction, we can't truly look at everything we pass by in a given day. But what could we discover if we took a moment to experience just one random observation?

The purpose of the building that this door belongs to is unfortunately lost in the recesses of my memory. Fortunately, an object as weathered as this one has many stories to tell, even if they are fiction."

one cup...

Yes, that's right, it's the incredible 'Pour-O-Matic' 'Espresso-Matic'...a piece of illustrated machinery used for regularly distributing caffeinated fiction. From this reliable mechanism will pour thoughts and ramblings dedicated to one notion:

If a coffee cup could talk, what would it say, based on what it has seen?

After seeing the semi-antiquated machine (illustrated above) sit idle in a Jiffy Lube waiting room, I thought about how long the coffeemaker has been around. That reminded me of an idea I had for a piece of writing...basically, if a coffee cup could talk, what would it say? What stories could it tell? Put all of that together and you get a "fly-on-the-wall" style of fiction around an ordinary object most of us use on a regular basis.

The writing for this series will follow a variety of styles. A few that are on my "to use" list are the "6 word novel" style (essentially, an entire story compressed into 6 words), prose, and straight dialogue (no narration). Stories are brewing as we speak so sit and savor the idea, let it sink in. When you return, look for the above illustration and enjoy the fictional ramblings of an observant coffee cup."

an interesting story or just a door?

Inspect the door in the photograph, discover its intricacies, and consider...how many times has this door been opened/closed, who constructed the door, who created the elaborate door knob, how many pedestrians has this door seen walk past it? Think about the possibilities, realistic or ridiculous.



The subject of this photograph is a simple door in Harpers Ferry, WV; the basic function of a door is something familiar to all of us. But this exercise isn't about a door, it's about the "what ifs" behind an object. We go through life allowing most of what we see to pass through our brains as quickly as a single exhaled puff of cigarette smoke fades into its surroundings. It's a natural reaction, we can't truly look at everything we pass by in a given day. But what could we discover if we took a moment to experience just one random observation?

The purpose of the building that this door belongs to is unfortunately lost in the recesses of my memory. Fortunately, an object as weathered as this one has many stories to tell, even if they are fiction."