Prospective Immigrants Please Note
Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.
If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.
Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.
If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily
to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely
but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?
The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.
This poem resonates with America today…we have been called a “melting pot” for some time now. It seems ironic that this land has been called the land of opportunity because it has been a while since I’ve heard of the “self-made man” in America. It seems like the ability to rise up through the ranks is diminishing more and more everyday, with big corporate business and that top 5% controlling the wealth of our country. Rich’s disclaimer to immigrants is saying that opportunity (or a door) “makes no promises”.
We’re left with a decision, fight or flight.
1.Go through the door into that unknown and risk of blindness and evasion. Immigrants are often pegged as annoyances stealing jobs from regular Americans.
2. Stay where you are–live worthily….
Would you go through the door?
it reminds me of the sermon we heard on sunday, america being a melting pot vs america being a salad bowl. it’s interesting to pose that question to the reader. would you walk through the door knowing what could lie on the other side of it? i watched a documentary in school over the past week about cuban refugees who took rafts to the united states for a “better life.” five years later, some of them were successful, but some were also selling drugs to get by. its just interesting to think about what you would do if you were in that situation.
Penlite says : I absolutely agree with this !