One Way

 
 

One way. What an intriguing statement. How many demagogues, leaders— political or religious—and ordinary people believe that there is one way and that is their way? Don't deviate from the one true path, the one agenda or chaos will follow.

I pick up the newspaper and read about factions who argue that their way is absolute. There is no room, no sliver of possibility to exist with the other.

And exit. Tom Stoppard said, "Every exit is an entrance somewhere else." Suppose we looked upon exits as entrances into possibilities. I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna turning everything into gum drops and cotton candy. Yes, there are exits that carry painful memories and locked doors.

Yet—to exit, to take leave of, to move on, carries with it a narrative that may include new discoveries. Imbedded within an exit is an entrance. I left and you entered. 

The greatest anguish is to be caught in the place where there is no exit. Jean Paul Sartre explores the fate of those for whom there is no exit. And even when presented with the open door the characters can not leave.

One way to exit. On a practical concrete level — exits from the theatre — one way prevents pandemonium. The notion of One way in interactions, in dialogue, in a social context may lead to pandemonium.