Creativity Over Schlock

A Halloween skeleton sits on a front lawn. A simple and entertaining display.

   Less ghoul is better than more.
   I drove around my area, viewing Halloween displays.
   Some homeowners went all out. Lots of inflatable monsters covered their lawns. I wasn't impressed. Too much clutter. Little creativity.
   These inflatable monsters first showed up a few years ago. They're easy to set up. They're trendy--lots of people display them. Because they're trendy, they're boring.
   Other homeowners kept it simple. Just one monster. Maybe a few. Nothing inflatable. Creativity over schlock.
   Simple impresses me. Grandiose turns me off.

Too may inflatables monsters adorn a lawn. Clutter results.

Half buried human shapes are simple and effective.

Standard of Decorum

Men in rural Iowa, many of them farmers, listen to presidential candidate Ron Paul deliver remarks inside a restaurant.

    Is it bad etiquette for men to wear hats indoors?
   When I was growing up, men removed their hats when entering a building. Not anymore. Some men have crossed that line of etiquette. The only places you won't see hats on men are in churches and formal restaurants.
   Women wearing hats indoors has always been acceptable. That's because they've worn 'statement hats' that highlight fashion over functionality.
   Lots of men wear caps. They used to be worn to shield the eyes from sunshine. That's pure functionality. But nowadays, with corporate logos and other graphics etched on caps, they've become statements of fashion. Does that make it okay to wear them indoors?
   Fedoras are statement hats. Back in the day, millions of men wore them. They took them off indoors.
   My sense is that a majority of men, myself included, still don't wear hats while indoors. To do so is poor etiquette. Lots of people might reject that notion.
   Widespread ignorance of etiquette is no excuse to lower one's standards of decorum.

Men eat lunch at a restaurant near my home.

Prayer Intentions

Notebook containing prayer intentions lays near statue of Virgin Mary.

   What do people ask the Virgin Mary for?

   I visited some Catholic churches near my home. Statures of the Virgin Mary stood in each one. Below them were notebooks. They contained prayer requests. I read them with fascination.
   Turns out, most people don't pray on behalf of themselves. They pray for other people. This observation surprised me. I assumed that petitioners would ask Mary for assistance with their own struggles and illnesses.
   A few did. Most requested help with mental health. Can Mary ease depression?
   Suffering is part of God's plan for us. Suffering teaches us humility and compassion. For that reason, I suspect lots of prayers don't get answered the way people want.
   But some do.
   Prayer is an act of humility. By exercising humility, we become happier.

Instead of words, someone penned in hearts.

Grainy on Purpose

Girl twirls on a ride called a yoyo. Each summer, a carnival visits my town.

  Sometimes grainy photos aren't a bad thing.
  To capture the motion of that girl, the image was underexposed. Graininess replaced smooth tones. Dark areas, including the clothes, lost their details. 
   A flash could have revealed those details and eliminated the grain. But at what cost? The red glow on her face would have disappeared. So would the natural ambience.
   Photography is a compromise.

Darkness and Light

   On a sunny day I encountered darkness. It happened while strolling behind an abandoned factory. Graffiti covered the walls. 
  Vile graffiti.
   An 'F' word blasphemed God. A reversed pentagram, the kind with two points facing upwards, heralded evil.
   Chances are, a teenager did the deed. He wanted to shock. Most people won't view his expression of depravity. Branches obscured it.
   Three towns away, my day brightened. Flowers hung along a wall. Not just any wall. This one stretched as long as three football fields. Behind the brick facade stood another closed factory.
   Thanks to a person who cared, a touch of beauty offset drabness.
   Some people spread darkness. Some people create light. Others do neither.

Conscience verses Rationalization

  
   The woman squatted at a corner, soliciting handouts of money. I walked by. For a fleeting moment our eyes met. I mumbled to her something about returning later.
   It was a Sunday. I'd just flown into Salt Lake City. Killing time, I walked the streets and visited an outdoor art display.
   My ambling led me back to the corner. There was that woman, still squatting and eyeing passersby.
   We struck up a conversation. I asked her to share an anecdote about herself.
   She pointed to a spot farther up the street. A man had driven by in a car, stopped at that spot, and driven back. Then he did something extraordinary. He held out a one hundred dollar bill.
   The woman accepted the donation. She thanked him. He said God told him to do it.
   I too gave the woman a little something. It was a pittance in comparison. 
   Why didn't the driver hand over the money right away? Why didn't I initiate the conversation earlier? The answer is lag time, an interlude when when people consider whether to perform an act of charity.
     During lag time, a tug of war plays out in our minds. On one side of the tug rope is rationalization. It warns us not to give money to a stranger. It could be a scam. The stranger might be a wino seeking money to get drunk.
   The other side is conscience. It exhorts us to help someone in need.
   Turns out, the woman was not a wino. She was seeking cash to pay her weekly rent. She lived with her husband in a flea bag motel. At least that's what she claimed. Maybe she fooled me. Maybe she laughed all the way to the liquor store.
   Is conscience or rationalization a better guidepost to follow? I think conscience is the way to go.
   But even when our conscience greens light a decision, we sometimes don't follow through.

Art of Persuasion

Impromptu portrait of man harvesting grapes in Spain.

    While on vacations, I carry a point and shoot camera.
   That might seem an odd choice for a professional photographer. The image quality of a point and shoot doesn't match the quality of my professional cameras.
   Point and shoots offer different advantages. They identify me as a tourist rather than as a photographer. Strangers are more apt to pose for tourists rather than photographers.
   Point and shoot cameras  are ubiquitous. They don't impress. Nor do they intimidate. As a result, strangers pose with greater ease.
   Portraiture isn't just about lighting and composition. Portraiture is an art of persuasion.

My point and shoot camera.

The Old Fashioned Way

   Classical music isn't my thing. So why did I attend the performance of a stringed duet?
   It happened last week inside our town's library. I took along my elderly mother. Showing her a good time wasn't my only motivation.
   I did it to socialize with townsfolk. The evening was fun. I chatted with new people during the intermission and afterwards.
   During my childhood, a grange hall stood down the street. Adults hung out there. As more adults hooked up to television, fewer of them visited the grange. It closed. A parking lot replaced it.
   How sad.
   Decades passed. Now we've got a new library. It includes a community room. Cultural events are scheduled. Last Friday's concert was the debut. Twenty-five people showed up. Not a lot but a start.
  Nowadays, social media is all the rage. I haven't hopped on that bandwagon.
  This might sound laughable, but I predict that people will eventually tire of social media. They'll venture forth from their electronic cocoons. They'll seek out new acquaintances and friends the old fashioned way, face to face. They'll be startled by how fulfilling this approach can be.
   Who know, perhaps that concert last week represents the tip of a social movement that's ebbing under the radar.