Photos by Jim Coarse
Text by Richard L. Gaw

“Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was life and not a dream. That she was alive somewhere, inside, which she acknowledged to be true only because a thing she knew intimately was out there, outside of herself.”  Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Perhaps more than any other man-made structure, lighthouses are said to best represent the dueling predicament of the human life: our isolation and our absolute connectedness with each other. All up and down the Route 9 corridor along Delaware Bay waterway, lighthouses are the forever embers on the shore. From the Marcus Hook Rear Range Lighthouse in North Wilmington to the Liston Front Range Lighthouse in Middletown to the Fenwick Island Lighthouse in Fenwick, there are 13 active lighthouses in Delaware, each separate entities but when joined together, they form a connective bond of light that guides boaters safely on their way.

Our poets, writers and our most courageous frequently use lighthouses as metaphors for life. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.” The philosopher Vernon Howard wrote that a “lighthouse remains perfectly steadfast and unaffected by the storm. Your true self is like that. Nothing can ever harm you once you are consciously aware that it is so.”

In the last decade of his life, after an equestrian accident paralyzed him and left him confined to a wheelchair and ventilator with very little mobility, the actor Chistopher Reeve became a symbol for resilience, grace and courage. 

“At some time, often when we least expect it, we all have to face overwhelming challenges,” was quoted as saying. “When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we find it, we must cling to it with absolute determination. When we have hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known - the power to make sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose hope, everything is possible.”