Everyday Canvas

Lighthouses

Prompt: Lighthouses.
Have you ever visited a lighthouse? Write about lighthouses in your Blog entry today.

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It must have been on an early summer day in some year possibly during the late nineteen seventies or early eighties--I can't recall the exact year--that we took our two young sons to the northern tip of Long Island, NY, and visited the Montauk Point Lighthouse. At the time, the surrounding area was uninhabited and, except for a few boats lurking in the distance at sea, there was only the lighthouse there with a small place nearby for its keeper. We did go in and looked up the steep circling stairs and decided against climbing to the top. Anyhow, our sons weren't impressed at all and they wondered why we would take them to such a "nothing place." So we got out and walked about the surrounding area and drove back home.

Yet, Montauk Point lighthouse has very important historical ties. Their website says, "The Montauk Point Lighthouse, commissioned by President George Washington in 1792, is one of the best-known and most-beloved icons of Long Island. It was the first lighthouse to be built in New York, and is the fourth-oldest working lighthouse in the nation. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012, one of only 12 lighthouses to be so honored."

Since we visited the place, this lighthouse has been refurbished with its tiny building enlarged and is made more visitor-friendly. Now, it even has a webcam so people can take a virtual tour.
https://montaukhistoricalsociety.org/montauk-point-lighthouse/

Not only the Montauk lighthouse but all lighthouses have some romanticism attached to them as cultural icons, and no wonder, because they have inspired art, literature, and folklore. Although their initial primary purpose had been to guide sailors on treacherous seas and during stormy weather, today they keep on serving us not only as inspiration for all kinds of art but also they help us with other important purposes such as hosting equipment for environmental research and weather monitoring.

I believe the significance of a lighthouse extends beyond its role in history and reaches beyond its practical functions in our day. After all, isn't a lighthouse always a welcome sight on any landscape for representing guidance, hope, and human resilience?