Arthur builds fences for men who live in houses with no neighbors and he uses wood that cost $8,240 because it came from the bottom of a cold lake in a place no one can find on a map.
He does not use nails and he does not use glue but he fits the planks together with joints that took him to carve and the men pay him because they want to know that no one else has a fence that stays up by itself. They do not care if the fence looks like a normal fence from the road and they do not care if the wood rots in because the point of the fence is the story of the wood and the secret of the joints.
They want to be the only ones who know why the wood is dark and they want to be the only ones who can say they have a fence from the bottom of a lake. This is the way of the world now and people chase the feeling of being inside a circle even if the circle is empty and the air inside is the same as the air outside.
The lure of the unlabelled door
We see this everywhere in the city and we see it in the way people talk about the places they go and the things they buy. A man will walk past a perfectly good restaurant with open tables and a warm fire just so he can stand in the rain for in front of a door with no sign.
He wants the man at the door to look at a list and find his name and he wants the man to pull back a heavy rope and let him into a room that looks just like the restaurant next door. The food might be worse and the chairs might be hard but he feels a glow in his chest because he is on the list and the people on the sidewalk are not.
The room is just a place to sit while you think about how special you are for being allowed to sit there.
The Ink of Ego
Diana Z is a woman who spends her time looking at the way people write their names on pieces of paper and she can tell you why a man will pay for a rope but not for a chair. She is a handwriting analyst and she looks at the slant of the pen and the weight of the ink on the page.
The “High First Hump” – A visual signature of the need for importance.
She says that when a person writes the letter M they often show their soul and if the first hump of the letter is much higher than the second hump it shows a deep need for others to see them as important. She sees this high first hump in the signatures of people who buy private memberships to clubs that offer nothing but a badge and a secret door.
These people are not looking for a better drink or a faster meal and they are looking for a way to feel bigger than the person standing next to them. Diana Z looks at the shaky lines and the hard pressure of the pen and she sees the fear that they are actually very small and the fear is what drives the market for things that are only for a few.
The Alternative: Purpose Over Pretension
This is a tax on the mind and it is a tax on the heart because it makes us think that the best things in life are the ones we keep away from others. It is a lie that the velvet rope makes the room better and it is a lie that the secret makes the truth more true.
Transparent Play
Established
When you look at a place like gclub you see a different way of doing things because they have been around since and they do not rely on the trick of the closed door. They focus on the games and the cards and the way the dealer moves their hands in front of the camera and they make sure the money moves fast when you win.
They do not need to tell you that you are a king to get you to play because the play is the point and the fairness of the game is the value. They have a license and they have a history and they have a real building in a place called Poipet where the floors are clean and the lights are bright.
A real experience does not need a rope to make it feel good and a real game does not need a secret to make it feel fair. If you have a deck of cards and a person who knows how to deal them you have everything you need for a good night. You do not need a gold badge and you do not need a private room that smells like old leather and ego.
We all want to feel like we have a edge and we all want to feel like we found a shortcut but the shortcut usually leads to a wall that someone built just so they could charge you for a key. Think about the last time you felt truly happy and think about if that happiness came from a list or a rope or a secret code.
Most of the time we are happy when we are doing something well or when we are with people who know our name without looking at a clip board. The joy is in the act of playing the game or eating the food or walking through the woods. The rope adds nothing to the taste of the wine and it adds nothing to the spin of the wheel. It only adds a layer of static between you and the world.
A Trick of the Light
The people who run the private clubs know this and they spend a lot of time making the lobby look grand so you do not notice that the room behind the door is small. They use heavy curtains and they use dim lights and they hire men with deep voices to stand at the entrance.
They want you to feel like you are entering a temple but it is just a room with a bar and some chairs. If they let everyone in the magic would vanish and you would see that the chairs are dusty and the bar is sticky.
The magic is the exclusion and the exclusion is a trick of the light.
When Arthur finishes his fence he sits on the grass and looks at the way the wood meets the earth. He knows that the man who paid $3,140 for the fence will never sit on the grass and he will never touch the joints with his fingers.
The man will only tell his friends about the wood from the bottom of the lake and he will feel a small spark of power when he says the price. Arthur feels a different kind of power because he knows how to make the wood stay together and he knows that the fence would still stand even if no one ever saw it. He does not need the rope and he does not need the list because he has the work.
Finding the Open Road
We should look for the work and we should look for the substance in the things we do. We should look for the platforms that show us the cards and the dealers and the rules without trying to sell us a fake sense of being better than our neighbor. The real world is big and it is open and it has enough room for everyone to play if we stop building walls to make ourselves feel tall.
The velvet rope is a heavy ghost that guards a room full of people waiting for a badge to tell them they are home but the home was always the open road. The next time someone tells you that a thing is for members only you should ask yourself what the members are actually getting.
Most of the time they are getting the same thing you can get anywhere else but they are paying a price in time and money and spirit just to say they have a key. You can walk past the rope and you can walk past the door and you can find a place where the lights are bright and the games are honest and the air is clear.
You do not need to be special to have a good time and you do not need a list to tell you who you are. You just need to find the things that are real and keep them close and let the ropes fall to the ground where they belong.
Arthur will keep carving his joints and Diana Z will keep looking at the slant of the ink and the world will keep turning but you can decide to stop chasing the door that is locked. You can stay in the light and you can play the game and you can know that the best room is the one where everyone is welcome to sit at the table.