Happy New Year Hopes

It is a clear and cold morning but Face Book is loaded with warm wishes.

Happy New Year.

Indeed.

My daughter has reminded me that four years ago we were on a Carnival cruise to the Bahamas. That was so much fun.

The cruise had randomly assigned us to a table of total strangers that turned out to be a miracle of sorts. The characters, from all over the country and world, mingled and interacted so well that everyone thought we were old friends from the start.

I am trying to get a photo out of my archives to show but that may take a while. In the meantime,  it is an extraordinary mental exercise revisiting those snippets of sheer pleasure where no one had an agenda...no rules...and living in the moment was enough.

We visited the piano bar one night. The pianist was very obliging for his "Jersey Girls" and we asked him to play Jerry Lee Lewis' "Balls of Fire". The piano started pounding and he gave a enthusiastic impression of the master. We had most of our dining group present.... and I even had a moment of madness and tried to dance.

The exuberant group and dancing spilled out into the corridor just in time for a visit from the ship's top brass. By this time the small lounge was packed. The Captain and Cruise Director had popped in to see what the noise was all about... and gave a thumbs up.

After they left, our pianist cheered....he said we just got him a positive review.  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah!

Of course we gave him a handsome tip. We dropped in the next evening and his substitute told us that he couldn't talk after singing and playing our session and needed a day off. We were hoarse too...but a round of Cosmos fixed that.

 Sometimes we need to remember that joy is a common quantity.