| ...he reached a door before which stood a doorkeeper. | |
| He asked for admittance, but the doorkeeper said he | |
| couldn't grant admittance at the moment. Being a | |
| man who sought to make a difference, he asked | |
| if it would be possible to pass through later and the | |
| doorkeeper answered, "Perhaps." Since the door was | |
| open and the keeper had moved to the side, he | |
| peered into the interior. "If you are so | |
| insistent, you can enter despite my veto..." the | |
| doorkeeper said. "But beware: I am powerful, | |
| and each successive doorkeeper inside is more | |
| powerful than the last. The third doorkeeper is | |
| already so powerful that even I cannot bear to look | |
| at him". This gave him pause, and so he sat down on | |
| a stool the doorkeeper had provided him, to await a better moment. | |
| Years went by and he at last came to die. | |
| "Everyone strives to reach the Law..." | |
| he said with his final breaths. "So how is it that | |
| no one but myself has ever begged for admittance?" | |
| The doorkeeper replied, as his eyes grew glassy, | |
| "No one else could ever be admitted here, since | |
| this gate was made for you. I am now going to shut it." | |
| Franz Kafka | |
