The Image Of Dat

I'm slowly getting back to normal. I am intrigued by my continual sense of disorientation anytime I wake up, even if I only have dozed for five minutes or so. There have been times previously in my other five missions to Asia where I could not go to sleep but nothing like this. I told someone tonight it seems to me almost like I would guess a stroke would be like. I'm not making light of strokes- Dad died as the result of one. But it's the absolute feeling of confusion, even if it only endures for a minute or so. Maybe it's an excuse to call in sick- I have to be on a bus headed for Abilene at 4 AM!

If you have followed my trip to Vietnam, you might recall I am the proud owner of a new Canon SX50HS, purchased with the help of Gary Keese shortly before my latest adventure began. I just looked on the display and it tells me there have been 2,367 shots taken with it. Assuming I took about 70 practice shots before I embarked for Can Tho, that means the camera was snapped about 2300 times. I have deleted down to 1100 and probably can easily get down to 800 or so. 

Every year, I think I take about three or four good pictures. Digital cameras allow the luxury of not having to be careful when snapping the shutter. Point and click and repeat and in my case, delete. The shot at the top of this entry is one of my good ones this trip. The color is excellent, the background is interesting, Dat has the perfect expression on his face, and the basketballs are aligned like the stars in the 1960's hit, Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In by The Fifth Dimension. But it wasn't skill on my part- I give credit to the law of averages. My estimate is we tried at least twenty times before we produced a winner. Dat had no idea of what I was talking about so I had to demonstrate tossing the balls simultaneously. Many American kids can do it easily but it was new to him. Then there was the issue of my ineptitude. Originally, Dat was standing in the shadows but Uncle Ten suggested reversing our positions which made all the difference. And so after fail-fail-fail-fail-etc., one keep-able image emerged. I imagine it might be my Facebook cover for a week or so some time this fall. I should pay Dat some royalty fees- he is famous among my American blog followers who feel like they have watched him grow up....and they have.

Much of my life has been akin to taking pictures with those old cameras that used film. Don't take too many- they might be low quality and you still have to pay! So you don't take risks, you don't stray too far off the familiar path, you keep inside the boundaries of comfortableness. But there is little excitement or accomplishment or satisfaction in the cautious life. It has taken my riding on the back of motorcycles through the off the beaten path roads of southern Vietnam to realize how much I missed by staying close to shore. I don't believe the Lord created us to always be beach dwellers. Jesus told Peter to venture out into the deep water and the result was miraculous. Now, I'm not saying my picture of Dat was a miracle but it would not have happened ten years ago. That in itself may be the hand of God. It's a developing picture.

Applicable quote of the day:
A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

Alexandre Dumas

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

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E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com