soul

Quit Date: 11.29.09

 

Posted April 8, 2014 

 

I have taken the liberty to borrow a writing from a great man and modify it (may he forgive me) to fit the principle of "Paying it Forward" in the smoking cessation world......................

 

Here below is what I stand for, in all my affairs.............

 

"I stand by the door"

 

 

I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.

The door is among the most important doors in the world -

It is the door through which men walk when they find Freedom.

There is no use my going way inside and staying there,

When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,

Crave to know where the door is.

And all that so many ever find

Is only the wall where the door ought to be.

They creep along the wall like blind men,

With outstretched, groping hands,

Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,

Yet they never find it.

So I stand by the door.

 

The most tremendous thing in the world

Is for men to find that door - the door to Freedom.

The most important thing that any man can do

Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands

And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks

And opens to the man's own touch.

 

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die

On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.

Die for want of what is within their grasp.

They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.

 

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,

And open it, and walk in,

So I stand by the door.

 

Go in; go all the way in -

Go way down into the cavernous cellars,

And way up into the spacious attics.

It is a vast, roomy house, this house of Freedom.

Go into the deepest of hidden casements,

Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.

Some must inhabit those inner rooms

And know the depths and heights of Freedom,

And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.

Sometimes I take a deeper look in.

Sometimes venture in a little farther,

But my place seems closer to the opening.

So I stand by the door.

 

There is another reason why I stand there.

Somebody must be watching for the frightened

Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,

To tell them how much better it is inside.

The people too far in do not see how near these are

To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.

Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door

But would like to run away. So for them too,

I stand by the door.

 

I admire the people who go way in.

But I wish they would not forget how it was

Before they got in. Then they would be able to help

The people who have not yet even found the door.

Or the people who want to run away again .

You can go in too deeply and stay in too long

And forget the people outside the door.

As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place.................

 

Where? Outside the door -

Thousands of them. Millions of them.

But - more important for me -

One of them, two of them, ten of them.

Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.

So I shall stand by the door and wait

For those who seek it.

 

'I had rather be a door-keeper

So I stand by the door.

 

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