Through a Glass Darkly for May 1, 2008

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: May 1, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:35 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

From Lake Pontchartrain, viewing the lonely lighthouse at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River reminded me last week of what special structures lighthouses are.

They catch the eye nearly as much in the daytime as at night.

On any seascape, a lighthouse becomes the focal point. It grabs the surveying glance and pulls it back to the tower.

On the horizon, a lighthouse sometimes seems to connect sea and sky like a hinge.

Many areas of the country have made old lighthouses into popular tourist attractions. Louisiana has let many of its towers fall into disrepair. Coastal land loss has left some of them marooned with waves lapping at their bricks.

Part of the reason lighthouses end up on calendars, posters and stamps is that they are aesthetically pleasing.

Perhaps more than aesthetics, the thing that intrigues people about lighthouses is their symbolism, which is sometimes as polar as the sea and sky they seem to bridge.

They represent hope. They represent isolation. They represent safety. They represent danger. They represent things spiritual. They represent things manmade in a natural environment.

The most obvious symbol conveyed by a lighthouse is that of a guidepost. Who among us doesn’t need one of those? Anyone who sails on open water knows the secure feeling of spotting an unmistakable landmark.

Linked to that is a symbol of safety. One of the assigned roles of early lighthouse keepers was to aid stranded mariners.

Lighthouses stand like sentinels. They seem on guard night and day in sunshine or storm.

Maybe that symbolism of safety is made even more interesting because lighthouses also can warn of rocky shoals. Part of human intelligence is the ability to notice warnings and even heed them, once we get past our teenage years. Maybe that’s part of why we notice lighthouses.

Lighthouses also symbolize solitude, which again has positive and negative connotations.