EAST BRUNSWICK -- He dashed from room to room, eyes dancing around excitedly, as he talked about the jewels of his more than 30-year collection.

This is the office of longtime East Brunswick ophthalmologist, Dr. Mark Leitman.

Circus music fills the entranceway. In the waiting room, a festoon of toys, dolls, clowns, glassy quartz and shiny beads of every color -- a farrago of thousands of objects collected over decades.

Each tells a story. The collection tells Leitman's.

An eye doctor in East Brunswick for more than 40 years, Leitman's obsession with bright, shiny objects -- whether from Brazil or a local fair or flea market. The menagerie is notable for locals, but has also drawn national attention as Leitman was featured on the Travel Channel's "Weird America" last month.

The collection came after years of the doctor's environmental activism, battling chemical and industrial pollution in Middlesex County in the early 1980s. The county had one of the most toxic waste sites in the country.

His effort ultimately contributed to stopping the construction of a toxic waste incinerator in Edison and a garbage incinerator in East Brunswick at the time.

But, for Leitman, 70, he says it also left him depressed. His passion for the environment has not wavered, but the seemingly endless fight left him dispirited.

"I was always fighting," said Leitman, sitting in a colorful chair in the waiting room. "I was always looking for things wrong. Then I said, 'I can't do this anymore.' I was a negative person."

He added, "I said, 'OK, now I have to find something good.'"

And so began the transformation of an ordinary doctor's office into one of the wildest-looking medical practices in the country.

Sure, it's chaotic. But for Leitman, it's about consistently presenting the eye with beautiful things -- which he believes can boost a person's mood and perception.

Painted all over the floor, ceiling and walls are inspirational sayings like, "Every day do something worth remembering," or "Indulge in beauty."

In his eye examination room, the zestful doctor reached up to grab his green-and-white peacock-feathered hat from a shelf. He wears it when he goes dancing. And he goes dancing every week.

He could barely finish explaining one item before being carried off by his excitement to explain another.

His office manager of 37 years, Andrea Kase, of Spotswood, remembers when the office was empty.

"It started with one rock," she said. It now may be one of the biggest mineral collections in the state, Leitman says.

Some patients can be skeptical upon first entering, she said, but after they give Leitman a chance, they are glad they came.

"We know it's over the top, too, but it doesn't matter," Kase said. "We don't have any stale golf magazines or tennis magazines. You get up, you walk around and you actually look."

Jacqueline Allen, 34, of Old Bridge, has been a patient of Leitman's for about 10 years. She described his office as a "cross between a museum and a fun house."

"I was quite amazed," she said, recalling her first visit to his office. "I was surprised, but I enjoyed it."

She added, "he always leaves you with golden nuggets of life, and I am blessed to know him."

Leitman, a father of three, believes anyone can change their perception by just changing their environment.

"And that's what I've done for the last 30 years, and my attitude immediately switched from being depressed, looking for negative, to looking for positive," he said. "And now you see the result of it."

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.