Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

While recently on my cruise I saw a very interesting meeting. I was walking through one of the buffets when I came upon a meeting that I did not at all expect. We had previously observed a group of orthodox Jewish people on the ship. They had kept to themselves when eating and we noticed that they had a rabbi so they were eating most likely Kosher food, blessed in some way by the Rabbi.

The night in question, a Friday night, I came upon them in the back of the boat, meeting together around some tables in that buffet, chanting and singing. For a moment, I wondered why they were doing what they were doing until I realized that since it was a Friday night, it was the beginning of their Sabbath. I thought it special that they found a unique sanctuary for their service, and could meet even on the high seas in such a busy place as a buffet on the stern end of the Crown Princess. This world is an amazing place, and I am privileged to be here.

We live in a great country. We live in a country where people are supposed to be judged by their peers if they have broken the law and if they have transgressed in some way. However, I fear that this country of ours is moving away from that rule of law. We have begun to make it a place where fairness only applies if you are politically correct. If you aren’t a liberal, and part of the ones that are enlightened, then the rule of the popular is more important and is therefore how you are judged. This country has moved away from truth and fairness, and instead has been moved to what is politically correct.

One of the bright surviving memories of my childhood is homemade popsicles. Tupperware sold these specialty items that could be used to pour Kool Aid or some other such sugared concoction into, you would put it in the refrigerator, and voila, instant popsicles. If we were really brave, we would take a table outside during a hot summer day and either sell our popsicles (make them eat it of course in front of us) or we would sell them Lemonade. It is a great childhood memory that is forever burned into my mind.

When I was younger, and even then couldn’t afford it, I was still a crazy man when it came to taking pictures. I love to photograph people and things. Over the years, I have done less of the people because most of them, a lot of the time my family, doesn’t appreciate being the focus of my camera. Slowly, because of those reasons, I didn’t take nearly as many pictures. Then all of a sudden, a sea change occurs in the film industry.

You can take a digital picture versus using a film cartridge. Let’s see, you can take a roll of 36 (have to be careful of what you shoot) with the film costing probably $8, and then the developing easily twice that much. All of a sudden you have to put out the money for a digital camera, but you can take a million pictures, edit them as desired, down load them to your computer, use the storage media again, and print only those that you really want to have printed. Voila, a photographer is reborn, and more of a pest than ever. I find myself going crazy taking pictures. Where I might have shot 100 pictures on a cruise, now I might take 10 times that. Of course, you have to have computer space to store all of those useless pictures, but gee whiz, I can still shoot a ton of pictures, and there is no waiting weeks to see if they came out right