You ll just have to forgive me if I take a timeout for a Kafka moment From Before the Law BEFORE THE LAW stands a doorkeeper To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country and prays for admittance to the Law But the doorkeeper says that he can not grant admittance at the moment The man thinks it over and then asks if he will be allowed in later It is possible says the doorkeeper but not at the moment Since the gate stands open as usual and the doorkeeper steps to one side the man stoops to peer through the gateway into the interior Observing that the doorkeeper laughs and says If you are so drawn to it just try to go in despite my veto But take note I am powerful And I am only the least of the doorkeepers From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after another each more powerful than the last The third doorkeeper is already so terrible that even I can not bear to look at him These are difficulties the man from the country has not expected the Law he thinks should surely be accessible at all times and to everyone but as he now takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat with his big sharp nose and long thin black Tartar beard he decides that it is better to wait until he gets permission to enter The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at one side of the door There he sits for days and years He makes many attempts to be admitted and wearies the doorkeeper by his importunity The doorkeeper frequently has little interviews with him asking him questions about his home and many other things but the questions are put indifferently as great lords put them and always finish with the statement that he can not be let in yet The man who has furnished himself with many things for his journey sacrifices all he has however valuable to bribe the doorkeeper The doorkeeper accepts everything but always with the remark I am only taking it to keep you from thinking you have omitted anything During these many years the man fixes his attention almost continuously on the doorkeeper He forgets the other doorkeepers and this first one seems to him the sole obstacle preventing access to the Law He curses his bad luck in his early years boldly and loudly later as he grows old he only grumbles to himself He becomes childish and since in his yearlong contemplation of the doorkeeper he has come to know even the fleas in his fur collar he begs the fleas as well to help him and to change the doorkeeper s mind At length his eyesight begins to fail and he does not know whether the world is really darker or whether his eyes are only deceiving him Yet in his darkness he is now aware of a radiance that streams inextinguishably from the gateway of the Law Now he has not very long to live Before he dies all his experiences in these long years gather themselves in his head to one point a question he has not yet asked the doorkeeper He waves him nearer since he can no longer raise his stiffening body The doorkeeper has to bend low toward him for the difference in height between them has altered much to the man s disadvantage What do you want to know now asks the doorkeeper you are insatiable Everyone strives to reach the Law says the man so how does it happen that for all these many years no one but myself has ever begged for admittance The doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end and to let his failing senses catch the words roars in his ear No one else could ever be admitted here since this gate was made only for you I am now going to shut it