Thoughts and Non Thoughts

(Part 1 of Animal Farm is here .) And so it came to pass that the farm elected the Pig for Supreme Animal. Or at least that’s what the Comselec, the commission that counted the votes, declared. Within six months the Parrot lost its voice and eventually died of heartbreak. The Owl retreated into deep silence and seemed not to be sorely missed. The Dove had to go back to its divided flock to explain how it misheard the voice from heaven. The Dog started acting like a domesticated puppy. But the Duck had the most fun, selling recordings of its quack and getting paid for finally acting like a duck. The Pig continued campaigning for a while, as if it needed reminding that it had been elected Supreme Animal. It finally stopped trying to win a popularity contest and tried to solve the problems of the farm with mixed results as in the past. Within a year, excitement was back in the animal farm. Some animals have accused the pigs surrounding the Supreme Animal of hoarding more and more food ill...

(written May 7, 2004) There was an animal farm which was not like any other animal farm. You see, the animals get to elect a Supreme Animal every six years. This year is an election year and there are six candidates for Supreme Animal. They could not be more different from each other. The first candidate is a Pig. It claims it deserves to continue as Supreme Animal because -- all animals should know this -- the Pig is the brainiest animal in the farm, or outside the farm for that matter. It claims experience has taught it how to run the farm and how to solve all the problems of the farm despite mixed results in the past. The problem is that, even if this Pig is diminutive, animals suspect gargantuan greed -- particularly those of the other pigs around it. The other animals suspect that the pigs are hoarding most of the food in the farm for themselves, although there is no evidence except their increasing girth. The harshest accusation of the pigs' greed comes from the second candid...

In the vast eternity of time and space, we are like fireworks. We live on this world, shine brightly for a brief moment, and then are gone forever. Don't you wish there was a way for you to live forever? Yes, there is a way, and that is through the magic of photography. By using a camera, your shining moment lives forever. You will capture life as you saw it. It doesn't have to be a fancy camera. One of my favorite images was taken with a cellphone -- my daughter river-rafting with me. It's not a work of art but it is important to me. It is my life, it is my fireworks. And one day my daughter might look at it, remember that moment, and decide it is part of her fireworks too.