A cluster of lights on a stairwell landing somewhere. One of those ornamental things, probably selected by an ancient building owner. Only one bulb functioning out of four. What light there is barely reaches the carpet directly underneath. What’s gonna happen you wonder?
Is a guy going to walk up the stairs from out of our view, from the gloom and stop under the dim patch of light? That would put him outside the door facing the landing. He might pause there. Then what? If the single light symbolizes a diminished mental capacity, would that apply to the man on the landing or any person behind the door?
OR do you think the cluster of lights actually symbolizes lives being snuffed out, one by one. The one still functioning can represent this fellow outside the door. What fate awaits him? Will something come from the darkness of the stairwell to finish him off?
OR do the lights reflect the inevitability of our existence, that eventually, everything and everyone expires? No matter how brightly or what company we shone with from the beginning. Our buoyancy in numbers, which give us our confidence, diminishes day by day until we find ourselves alone, on a poorly lit landing like this, waiting for what comes next. The inevitable.
What if all of the above is true? What if all of it happens? What if we are the lonely man on the stairwell landing? Shall we ask ourselves the necessary questions:
Why am I here? What’s coming up the stairwell for me? Is this where it all ends for me? And who lives behind this door?
photo from Unsplash.com by Cyrus Lopes