Zen Swiss

In Geneva Airport there is an automatic door that opens, obligingly, as I approach it. No more than a yard beyond the door there is a gate consisting of two steel arms. Judge of my confusion when, the door having opened for me, the gate remains stubbornly shut. Have all my efforts - and the door's - been in vain? No! My anxiety is shortlived. A couple of seconds after the opening of the door, the arms of the gate swing aside to allow me to go about my business. This barrier is not at any strategic location; it is just there, interrupting a long walkway. It is the Swiss answer to Japan's mighty Zen gates which are designed to infuse your soul with a sense of the difficulty involved in passing from one state into another.