Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

We’re just getting back from a short vacation which was all around a great one. The boys got to spend time with their grandfather and two of my aunts with whom they immediately fell in love. We got time for lots of swim, play, and some rest too.

One experience seemed to mar the trip, at least at the time. We went for a dolphin swim encounter where we got to swim with dolphins. It was great! Having never been that close to them, without thick glass between us, we all appreciated their grace and beauty.

The company that ran the experience did not allow us to bring cameras or phones or the like. So we could not take any pictures. Of course, they provided their own photographer. After the swim, I was shocked to learn that any pictures at all would cost around $450! That seemed, to me, a grossly inflated price which I refused to pay.

We went away pretty annoyed, as you might imagine. I came home and, as I am wont to do, wrote letters to them and reviews everywhere I could find!

But I do find myself wondering if there wasn’t a silver lining there. In our culture now, and probably since not long after cameras came into common use, how much do we set aside the experience itself in favor of creating images of the experience? I’m often the worst at this! I love taking pictures and am fascinated by photography. I think it’s one of the reasons I liked communications work — using images to tell stories.

But I’ve found myself, at times, taken out of the moment by trying to capture it. Life sometimes feels this way too. In trying to shape, cultivate, capture, or control it we lose the beauty of becoming lost in the experience of it. We take ourselves out of the moment and cheat ourselves of the opportunity to simply experience it — all of it — as the gift from God that it is.

I’m not sure I’ll be much more restrained in taking photos though I will try! I’ll also try to be a little less focused on capturing life’s moments than on living them. We’ll see how it goes!

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert