Are you a neon sign or a cairn? Right now you’re probably saying to yourself I know what a neon sign is, but how does it apply to me and what in the heck is a cairn?
Let me start with the cairn. A cairn is a small or sometimes rather large pile of rocks to intentionally mark something. In the past they were used to mark graves or for religious alters among other things. Today, hikers the world over know them as the universal markers to help keep fellow travelers on the trail.
Neon signs are used to catch someone’s eye. They say, “hey look at me”. Sure, they are neat to look at, but they can be incredibly obnoxious too.
Cairns just set there silently pointing the way. I remember one time while climbing Long’s Peak there was a stretch of basically thawed tundra just prior to the “Boulder Field” and it was very easy to lose the way. It would be hard at this point to get truly lost, but it was easy to lose the exact trail and if it were not for cairns strategically placed I might have wondered considerably off trail damaging the pristine fauna that is so precious to hikers like myself.
Both neon signs and cairns provide direction and both are useful and needed. But, I find all too often that we are acting like neon signs when all that the world needs is for us to be cairns.
So are you a neon sign or a cairn? Does your function or role demand one or the other? Would you rather be one vs. the other? Let’s discuss.
