This door is what I now call "The Golden Rule Door". It is the southeast entry and exit door of the Farrison-Newton Communications Building at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. It faces the parking lot behind the building, which borders it to the east. The black rail pictured separates a wheelchair access walkway to the door and a sidewalk running alongside part of the parking lot. I'm sure that both building (and door!!) have been there longer than I have thus far. Many of the buildings on campus that share such an architectural design and style date from the same general year of construction (c.1975-77), but this particular door intrigues--and occasionally frustrates!!... everyone who enters and exits this building every day!!
Murphy's Law or the Golden Rule...
A closer look and encounter will reveal several wondrous details: its hinges are located on the left, and the handle and doorjamb on the right. Most single-door thresholds have those elements reversed so the door opens from left to right, and one approaching the threshold can do so from the left and find reaching for the door handle much easier. However, DIS heah doh'...ain't set up this here way!! ERR'BODY who comes from the most accessible direction (south) has to reach across the threshold to grab the door handle. This is where "Murphy's Law" swings into enthusiastic motion!! The door borders a rear sidewalk and the parking lot, but the other side of that threshold...is a short basement landing at the bottom of three floors worth of the southeast stairwell. Most folks (faculty/staff) who have reserved (purchased) parking privileges in the lot approach from the north side of the door...the "handle" side. But most people who don't park in that lot or walk to the building as pedestrians...approach from the southeast, the "long reach side". Folks who exit the building at this point have NO visual forewarning of anyone on approaching from the other side of the door. As also pictured in the photograph, the window mounted in the door offers a laughably scant field of vision (c.3 inches wide and 2.5 feet high)...out and in. At this point, individually, collectively, hypothetically and/or realistically...the principle of "The Golden Rule"...MUST come into play.
The Conclusion of the Matter...
Aside from this moral/ethical/philosophical juncture, it is all too convenient to hasten and conclude that the State of North Carolina, the UNC System and North Carolina Central University have each colluded to place each citizen--guest, student, staff, faculty member and administrator--at the open risk of injury both small and substantial. But in my regular daily entries and exits via this doorway, one unwritten yet profound rule always manages to prevail: that of "doing unto the one coming in...as you would wish to have done for you coming out". Those who open the door from the inside can often be found holding the door and waiting for numerous fellow students/colleagues approaching from nearly thirty feet away. Those who arrive to open the same door from the outside do so often with care and patience, knowing that someone is at or very close to the other side of the same threshold!!
I would love to know about any other public institutions in the State of North Carolina built around the same time as the Farrison-Newton Communications Building...that might have a similar or even identical plan for their entry and exit thresholds. The one most mysterious takeaway in all this is both the oddest and most profound: in the matter of communication, the portal of greatest hazard...is also the portal of greatest potential opportunity. Perhaps this is the true metaphor...of all manner of communication. An awkwardly placed portal, threshold, window (narrow yet long) and angle of access, entry and exit...
Murphy's Law or the Golden Rule...
A closer look and encounter will reveal several wondrous details: its hinges are located on the left, and the handle and doorjamb on the right. Most single-door thresholds have those elements reversed so the door opens from left to right, and one approaching the threshold can do so from the left and find reaching for the door handle much easier. However, DIS heah doh'...ain't set up this here way!! ERR'BODY who comes from the most accessible direction (south) has to reach across the threshold to grab the door handle. This is where "Murphy's Law" swings into enthusiastic motion!! The door borders a rear sidewalk and the parking lot, but the other side of that threshold...is a short basement landing at the bottom of three floors worth of the southeast stairwell. Most folks (faculty/staff) who have reserved (purchased) parking privileges in the lot approach from the north side of the door...the "handle" side. But most people who don't park in that lot or walk to the building as pedestrians...approach from the southeast, the "long reach side". Folks who exit the building at this point have NO visual forewarning of anyone on approaching from the other side of the door. As also pictured in the photograph, the window mounted in the door offers a laughably scant field of vision (c.3 inches wide and 2.5 feet high)...out and in. At this point, individually, collectively, hypothetically and/or realistically...the principle of "The Golden Rule"...MUST come into play.
The Conclusion of the Matter...
Aside from this moral/ethical/philosophical juncture, it is all too convenient to hasten and conclude that the State of North Carolina, the UNC System and North Carolina Central University have each colluded to place each citizen--guest, student, staff, faculty member and administrator--at the open risk of injury both small and substantial. But in my regular daily entries and exits via this doorway, one unwritten yet profound rule always manages to prevail: that of "doing unto the one coming in...as you would wish to have done for you coming out". Those who open the door from the inside can often be found holding the door and waiting for numerous fellow students/colleagues approaching from nearly thirty feet away. Those who arrive to open the same door from the outside do so often with care and patience, knowing that someone is at or very close to the other side of the same threshold!!
I would love to know about any other public institutions in the State of North Carolina built around the same time as the Farrison-Newton Communications Building...that might have a similar or even identical plan for their entry and exit thresholds. The one most mysterious takeaway in all this is both the oddest and most profound: in the matter of communication, the portal of greatest hazard...is also the portal of greatest potential opportunity. Perhaps this is the true metaphor...of all manner of communication. An awkwardly placed portal, threshold, window (narrow yet long) and angle of access, entry and exit...
