Threshold is the single word prompt for the church’s writer’s group this month. I struggled with this one a bit and ended up writing two pieces. I thought a poem would be nice, but then I didn’t really like what I wrote so I did something with more prose in it – you might call it a prose poem. Still, that one wasn’t exactly what I was thinking of so I just took both writings to the group and read them both.
The first piece is titled, Threshold while the second piece is titled, Threshold. Please read them and let me know which you think is the better piece, Threshold or Threshold. Spoiler alert: the writing group thought Threshold was better …
Threshold 0.7 volts. The minimum energy required for a transistor to start working. Once crossed, amplifiers amplify and music is heard. Below the threshold lies silence and a gentle breeze. Threshold divides the two worlds. From the portal he stands looking towards her. An open barrier he can’t cross until a word and a step takes flight leading to the next Threshold a rock sits at the summit for eons unmoving until a push beyond inertia sets the rocky cascade. Standing at the end, Looking back will we look back at thresholds crossed or just fall through the last door with our song unsung.
Threshold
0.7 volts is the semiconductor threshold. Below this voltage, diodes, and transistors won’t conduct electrons and radios, phones and computers don’t work. Set the circuit so that the voltage across the diode is above .7 and current flows – amplifiers amplify, computers compute and all the high tech magic comes to life.
Threshold, that energy level needed to overcome inertia. You can push on a table, but it doesn’t move until a certain minimum force is reached. A boulder on a mountain top might sit there for centuries until just the right force comes along and sends it crashing down the hill. Your car idles at the stop light until you move a small muscle in your foot, unleashing the power of the engine.
There is an emotional threshold, an intellectual threshold – a minimum effort needed to start a relationship or learn something new. Ever need to call a plumber? Think of the effort to find one, call, make the appointment, and then wait for them to arrive. Sometimes we just let the faucet leak instead of making that call.
How many new friends have I not made because I couldn’t take the effort to say, “Hello.” How often do we miss out because we won’t move our hand, meet a glance or take just one step?
Threshold, that thing on the floor. That thing that defines a door – a separation from one place to another and one time from another. I remember being 18 and having the feeling of standing on the threshold of life. So many doors to choose. Picking one meant rejecting another. Joining the Navy would end my life at home while going to school would take me to a safer high tech career. Even today I, I look back through the portals I have past and wonder if I stepped over the right threshold.
It’s easy to second guess the past. The view on the other side of the door is different – the room changes as we enter and walk through to the next decision point.
Doors can be walked through, but they also enclose us. Threshing is the process of removing grain from the stem and a threshold keeps the valuable grain on the threshing floor. Some doors are slammed shut on us – death of a loved one, loss of a job. Some doors we close. Sometimes a door needs to be shut and barred to protect us.
Sometimes a threshold shouldn’t be crossed. Violence, anger, and hate take us to rooms that tear us down, render us less than when we entered. Some words can’t be recalled, some doors won’t close.
0.7 volts, the minimum energy we must spend to start the current of life flowing.
Andrew's View of the Week 
As is so often the case, poetry speaks louder in fewer words. On many levels, I find the poem winning its way to my senses with more freedom. It has my vote.
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Thanks – at a certain level I like it, even though I feel it could use some editing.
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Glad you wrote both, Andrew. Lots of food for thought here!
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Sometimes we need to feed our brains. 😉
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“Threshold” really is the better piece! I concur with you and others.
But “Threshold” #1 is my favorite of the two. 🙂
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I’m glad you liked that one. I still can’t make up my mind so I’m just showing both to people.
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I loved them both, but definitely prefer “Threshold”. 😉
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Threshold was my favorite too. 😉
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It’s the poem for me, especially that last stanza. Thought-provoking, to say the least.
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It seemed like the natural place to end and even got me to thinking.
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I prefer the second one, because it is in prose which, for me, suits the subject matter so much better.
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Yes, I had to go to prose because I was struggling with the poem.
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I like both, but the prose version is the winner because of the thought-provoking details that resonate. Well done!
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I wasn’t sure how much detail to put in there, but I liked the idea of provoking some thinking.
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The prose version is the one that got me thinking about all the thresholds I’ve crossed and reminded me once again that crossing all of them (including the bad ones) is what brought me to today. Each was a necessary part of the journey.
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Part of me wanted to write a longer prose piece, but I kept that short even though I know there are a lot more thresholds.
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Very Nice! Both of them!
Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks – they took more effort that I thought they would.
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I knew you’d be clever about this.
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Well, that was required. 😉
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I like the second version….more in depth and easier for my brain to follow and absorb.
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Yes, I had to write that version because the poem wasn’t making sense to me (the writer).
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The free verse/poem version. It captures the essence.
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I started with the poem, stopped, wrote the prose and went back to the poem. Guess both needed to be written.
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A very interesting and informative piece, Andrew.
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I do me best. 😉
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