The Street of Ever-Larger Doorways

The street's affluent residents began replacing their front doors after one household installed an entrance large enough for a small carriage. (affluent: wealthy, prosperous, well-off) ▶ Listen A conspicuous competition followed, although nobody owned a carriage or wanted to keep one in the sitting room. (conspicuous: noticeable, prominent, obvious) ▶ Listen The carpenter noticed a disparity between the residents' practical needs and the dimensions they requested on each new order. (disparity: inequality, difference, imbalance) ▶ Listen An aspirational gap appeared whenever someone admired a doorway larger than the one he could comfortably accommodate. (aspirational gap: distance between wants and means, gap between desired and attainable lifestyles, mismatch between ambitions and resources) ▶ Listen

The new doors required concomitant changes to porches, paths, curtains, and the cupboards formerly placed beside the entrance. (concomitant: accompanying, associated, attendant) ▶ Listen The resulting expenditure left several households unable to repair the ordinary things they used every day. (expenditure: spending, outlay, disbursement) ▶ Listen An insatiable desire to keep up made each completed project feel inadequate as soon as another resident began a larger one. (insatiable: unquenchable, unappeasable, impossible-to-satisfy) ▶ Listen The carpenter suggested a retrospective examination of what the street had actually gained since the competition began. (retrospective: backward-looking, reviewing the past, looking back) ▶ Listen

A dispassionate count revealed more impressive entrances but fewer evenings when neighbors had time to visit one another. (dispassionate: objective, impartial, unemotional) ▶ Listen Their competitive consumption had become a running joke that nobody seemed able to stop performing. (competitive consumption: rivalry through spending, status-driven purchasing, buying to keep up) ▶ Listen One resident's ostensible reason for replacing her door was improved convenience, although its new handle required both hands to turn. (ostensible: apparent, professed, purported) ▶ Listen Another's grandiose design prevented his curtains from closing and left him dressing behind an increasingly tall stack of boxes. (grandiose: extravagant, overblown, excessive) ▶ Listen

The librarian proposed a modest experiment: invite everyone to bring something useful to a shared evening without mentioning what it had cost. (modest: restrained, unpretentious, unassuming) ▶ Listen A gregarious baker arrived with bread, while the carpenter brought a stool that fit through every doorway on the street. (gregarious: sociable, outgoing, convivial) ▶ Listen An eclectic collection of stories, tools, games, and repaired objects made the evening more interesting than a tour of recent purchases. (eclectic: varied, diverse, wide-ranging) ▶ Listen The neighbors discovered parity in their ability to contribute, even though their houses remained different sizes. (parity: equality, equivalence, equal standing) ▶ Listen

One resident described a positional treadmill in which every larger purchase invited another comparison rather than a lasting sense of arrival. (positional treadmill: race to maintain relative status, competition that preserves relative rank, effort spent merely keeping up) ▶ Listen The librarian treated that description as a metaphor, not a complete explanation of every reason anyone might improve a home. (metaphor: figurative comparison, image, nonliteral analogy) ▶ Listen A judicious choice could still involve buying something new when it solved a real problem or provided genuine enjoyment. (judicious: prudent, sensible, thoughtful) ▶ Listen The distinction was salient to the carpenter, who liked building doors but disliked being asked to build dissatisfaction into them. (salient: important, noticeable, striking) ▶ Listen

An insular circle of comparisons had made the street forget that many enjoyable activities required neither a large doorway nor an expensive object. (insular: inward-looking, narrow, provincial) ▶ Listen The baker's unassuming contribution reminded the neighbors that usefulness could be visible without being conspicuously costly. (unassuming: modest, unpretentious, self-effacing) ▶ Listen A discerning household could still prefer a beautiful entrance while recognizing that beauty and relative status were different reasons for choosing it. (discerning: perceptive, selective, insightful) ▶ Listen The carpenter encouraged a candid description of those reasons rather than pretending every decorative purchase was strictly necessary. (candid: frank, honest, straightforward) ▶ Listen

The residents' aspirations did not have to become identical for the evening to remain friendly and interesting. (aspirations: ambitions, hopes, aims) ▶ Listen A homogeneous street was not their goal; the variety of houses and tastes had always been part of its appeal. (homogeneous: uniform, similar throughout, alike in composition) ▶ Listen The problem was a pervasive habit of treating another person's choice as an instruction that everyone else must obey. (pervasive: widespread, extensive, all-pervading) ▶ Listen A voluntary alternative left each household responsible for its own priorities without requiring a public competition to justify them. (voluntary: freely chosen, optional, unforced) ▶ Listen

One resident found genuine pleasure in restoring an old door whose shape suited her house better than the latest enormous design. (genuine: authentic, real, sincere) ▶ Listen Her neighbor made a different choice, and their continued friendship did not require a verdict about whose entrance represented a superior life. (different: distinct, dissimilar, unlike) ▶ Listen The street's concord rested on making room for those differences rather than declaring every desire for improvement misguided. (concord: harmony, agreement, amity) ▶ Listen The carpenter appreciated this nuance, which left him free to make useful doors without also promising their owners permanent satisfaction. (nuance: subtle distinction, fine difference, shade of meaning) ▶ Listen

The street adopted a voluntary pause in its informal competition while each household considered its own priorities. (voluntary: optional, freely chosen, unforced) ▶ Listen A tangible benefit appeared when one family repaired its dining table instead of widening an entrance that already worked perfectly well. (tangible: concrete, perceptible, palpable) ▶ Listen The neighbors' congenial visits became more frequent because fewer evenings were spent carrying construction materials through unfinished porches. (congenial: friendly, pleasant, agreeable) ▶ Listen The carpenter accepted a gratifying final order: a small sign inviting visitors inside, measured to fit the door that was already there. (gratifying: rewarding, satisfying, pleasing) ▶ Listen