IT WAS ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE

(photo credit)

CANADIANS: "Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision."


AMERICANS: "Recommend YOU divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision."


CANADIANS: "Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision."


AMERICANS: "This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course."


CANADIANS: "No, I say again, you divert your course."


AMERICANS: "This is the Aircraft Carrier USS LINCOLN, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied with three Destroyers, three Cruisers and numerous support vessels. I DEMAND that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that's one-five degrees north, or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship."


CANADIANS: "This is a LIGHTHOUSE. Your call."


I woke up this morning with one word on the tip of my tongue: lighthouse. Well, that is odd, you must be thinking. Well, yes and no. I spent all day, it seemed like, working on the IF I WERE blog and I knew that the lighthouse revelation related to the object part of that blog. To keep you up to speed, in yesterday's blog if I were an object, I would be a band-aid. That is what I chose.

However, all of those "if I were" questions were tough, because it was difficult to know if I was actually choosing what I actually was, what I liked most, or what I wished I was most of the time. Those things can overlap. And, so, my subconscious must have still been working on my IF I WERE list while I was sleeping, and decided that what I really wanted to be was a lighthouse. Do I think I am a lighthouse? No. I think I made the right choice with band-aid.

However, that got me to thinking about all things lighthouse. My mother collects them. She likes the kind that actually light up. They get mixed in with our Christmas decorations a lot. Our Christmas village sometimes has a lighthouse. It may not be historically accurate, but it's pretty. Of course, my mom has several Christmas villages so it is tough for one of them not to share space with a lighthouse. (photo credit)

I went looking for the joke that kicked this blog off when I knew it was going to be about lighthouses. It started circulating back in the mid-90s and was first thought to be true. Since then, it has appeared in many variations, with the Americans manning the lighthouse, and there is even a variation involving the UK, or so says snopes. In any event, it's pretty funny.

There is also a song by Nickel Creek called The Lighthouse's Tale. You can click here to watch/listen. It is literally a story told from the perspective of a lighthouse. I am reminded each time that I listen to it that an object, any object, has no power. I am also amazed by the raw talent of the three young people that sing this song. They are only teenagers. Of course, the song itself is pretty cool or I wouldn't have put in on here.