When people think of the circle of life, I'm sure they oftentimes find images of hospitals or The Lion King populating their mind's eye. Their instincts naturally take them to the easiest of means of life and death, where it all happens such as the hospital.

I was thinking about that the other day whilst driving to work. I stopped at the light on 9th and Royal Gorge Blvd. in Canon City, Colorado and happened to look at the telephone pole beside me on the sidewalk. It's obviously an old pole as it's dark, the weathered appearance would claim. What stole my attention, however, were the thousands of left-over tacks, staples, and nails that decorated its lower third.

I'm sure everyone knows that those tacks, staples, and nails once held signs. All sorts of signs for yard sales lost pets and county elections.

There wasn't time to count all of them before the light turned green and I was ushered forward by the other cars but I couldn't help but wonder what other sorts of signs may have been attached to that one pole. Different stages of people's lives left their marks on that telephone pole, it got me thinking about life as a whole.

One couple's whole life story could have been tacked to that one pole, at different points in time. Maybe they realized they were accumulating too much stuff and decided to hold a yard sale and subsequently tacked a yard sale sign to the 9th and Royal Gorge Blvd. telephone poll, the one they knew everyone would pass.

Maybe a couple of years would pass and they'd have kids and get a dog. The dog runs away and where do they go? To the 9th and Royal Gorge Blvd. telephone poll to tack up a precious photo of the lost fuzzball, distraught children in tow. They might have waited anxiously by the phone, praying that someone would see the photo and deliver their pet home.

Years would pass this way, with posters and signs being tacked up to that telephone pole with the family's needs. In a way, the signs that were posted would identify the family and what their life was like. Were they continually holding garage sales to get rid of superfluous items, were they always looking for a lost dog because they couldn't afford to patch their fence, or was it a combination of it all?

A telephone poll (should they be sentient in any way) would be able to flawlessly view the goings on and progression of family life. They might be able to discern when a couple gets married, when they have children, when they need to move and when they leave town altogether.

Life is funny like that. It will be alike for no two families, couples or individuals. We'll all put different posters up on telephone polls. It's just the way life works. There's something beautiful in that.