The Longest Shortest Time

Drawing Obsession: Doors

Lately Sasha has been bringing home drawing riddled with doors.

 
Sometimes they’re on tiny buildings; sometimes they’re doors within other doors.

 
Or doors growing out of the sides of buildings with doors. Or doors on top of the world.

I’ve asked her many times, What do the doors mean? What’s behind them?

Nothing, she tell me. They’re just doors.

Still, I am convinced, they must mean SOMETHING. Surely, these pictures are a clue into the inner workings of her mind. What lies behind those doors is the clue to her uninherited chattiness, her odd love of chives, her insistence that she doesn’t have any feelings.

Tonight, as I tucked her in, I asked for an explanation. Why do you draw the doors?

Because, she said, sighing her way to sleep, it is something I know how to draw.

And where do they lead? I asked, thinking maybe she would hit upon something meaningful in her half-dream state.

To the dining room, she said, with a slight smile. Which just happens to be her other latest drawing obsession. And, actually, her real life obsession, too. Kid loves her food; always has. What was behind those doors was smack in front of my face all along.

 
What can YOUR kids not stop drawing?