Salamanders and Toads

My brother used to spend quite a bit of time back in the woods looking for salamanders. He has this uncanny ability to look under the right rock or piece of wood. He would also spend a great deal of time with his hands in the window well at the southwest corner of our house. This was the location of his carefully developed habitat for toads - a toad abode.

I thought about this while reading the early pages of Seth Godin's book, Linchpin. These images contrast starkly with the factory life that dictates so much of our existence today. I don't just mean factories as places that make things. In addition to these places, I think about schools and churches and other places that squelch the creativity and wonder that seems so natural in early years. Then, at some point along the way, it almost seems like people have to begin forcing themselves to be creative or experience awe.

The alternative really is death.

That is what any type of factory-like setting runs of the risk of doing - killing. Sure, I'm not talking specifically about physical death. I'm talking more about emotional and spiritual death. I'm talking about zombies walking around saying "yes." I'm talking about people who forget what it is like to be outside somewhere in the country riding bike in the middle of summer. At some point, we trade this in to work in some sterile facility or someplace that is grimy or someplace that is devoid of awe and wonder.

It is time to turn this around.

We recently have started taking steps to turn this around. The addition of many new lights is kind of symbolic of this new way. Quite literally, we have added light at the end of the tunnel.