Inspiration
Be The Lighthouse
Shine your light
I’m working on my USCG Captain’s license.
Soon, people will have to call me Cap’n Susan. I have always been the captain of my ship, so this formality will institutionalize it, and give me some letters, I suppose, to put after, or before my name, or something to put on a resume which I hope to never have to resurrect again.
Once I have the Captain designation, it will take its place with other worthy titles I enjoy, like “Chef” and “Ma” (like the leader of an unruly gang of bank robbers or New Age Robin Hoods).
My plan is that once I’ve got the Captain-hood, I’ll be able to take 6 folks at a time out on the Hudson River for tours. The tours will be unique, since I’ve got so much trivia in my head from my years of living here in this river valley, and from studying the history of the region. But more than that, I’ll give the tours an environmental spin and prepare great vegan food for the tours. And that will delight and surprise the guests, since I prepare kick-ass vegan meals that so blow peoples’ minds that they will suddenly come to an epiphany and understand that vegan can be amazingly delicious, while at the same time helping humanity. The secret ingredient to my cooking of course, is ME.
I’ve got to put in 360 hours of sea time before I can get the license, so I’ll be working on a tour boat this summer, time slicing between cleaning houses for AirBnB property owners, and writing here on Medium.
Recently, this great article by umair haque popped up in my feed. I always enjoy Umair’s pieces.
This article, along with my quest for the Captain designation reminded me of this funny joke, perhaps you’ve heard it.
“The Lighthouse Joke”
The following is being transmitted around the Internet as an event that really took place, but it never happened. It is simply an old joke like those found in popular magazines:
Believe it or not…this is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995.
US Ship: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
CND reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
US Ship: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship. I say again, divert your course.
CND reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course!
US Ship: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS CORAL SEA*, WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!!
CND reply: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
*Note: USS Coral Sea (CV 43) was decommissioned and scrapped 2 July 1993. Other ships’ names appearing have been USS Missouri (BB 63) which was decommissioned on 31 March 1992 and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) which is an active ship.
Reviewed: 02 September 2009, sourced from
I am grateful and was blessed to have had grandparents when I was young who were lighthouses, built on strong foundations.
It’s not that they didn’t have their fair share of trauma or seemingly unfair life circumstances. I’d say they had more than their fair share.
But there were some unwavering principles that they built the foundation of their lighthouses upon, and then went on to teach. These rocks included:
Integrity — Words and deeds match. Don’t say a thing if you can’t do a thing.
Honesty — Don’t lie. Authenticity means you speak the truth, with no room for being disingenuous or manipulative.
Compassion — Care for the hearts and minds of others. Don’t do or say a thing without empathy and compassion.
Love — Sometimes the hardest thing to do is done for love.
Being a captain of a ship is, and would be for anyone, an awesome responsibility. It will be exhilarating and will inspire an incredible sense of freedom for me. I will be fulfilling one of my deepest seated desires of being as close to the water as possible. I will be able to surf the currents and waves, weather the storms, ride out the wakes, and navigate my own paths. Eventually, I might take my ship to the Caribbean, or to any other river or port in the world I choose to spend time with.
With all that freedom, with all that personal capacity realized, with all that fun and sheer joy actualized — I would still much prefer be a lighthouse keeper than a ship captain. It is a much safer space to be in.
But I choose to be a ship captain. I choose to take risk so I can learn and grow and morph into something that is amazing and great. I take inspiration from Eleanor Roosevelt, who was apparently misattributed with a quote about doing one thing every day that scares you, but regardless of attribution, the sentiment is here:
But ultimately, in the end, I’d rather BE the lighthouse, shining my light to help others navigate their ships. And maybe that’s because I had the benefit of being exposed to a wonderfully rich heritage of people manifesting as lighthouses.
Imagine a planet dotted with lighthouses — how brightly we would shine.
Hey, I’ve got an idea! Less is more! Let’s build a giant human Fresnel lens!