sunday

We might go apple picking today.
It depends on the weather.

Yesterday, K worked.
But that's not really right.
He volunteered to help with a shoot.
But that's not really it either.
He shot a funeral, a memorial service.
A co-worker had died.
A young co-worker.
I was on the phone with K when the staff heard about it.
He had been in Africa. Doing amazing work. Helping people.
And he just died.
People in the office were stunned.
It was a terrible shock.
K and I hung up that day - and, to tell you the truth, I didn't think much more about it.
A couple of weeks later K mentioned that he would be filming the service.
There were to be services in a few places and people were filming them to send to this man's parents, who live overseas.
As the day drew nearer I asked K about this man and the more I learned the more I admired him.
In a field where people are brash and smart and well paid, he was quiet and wise and doing charity work.
People referred to him as visionary, brilliant, and funny. A lover of lollipops and starbucks.
He did tremendous things for other people, for lots of other people. He left bright shining moments behind him wherever he ventured.
And he was memorialized by the people who knew him - with chanting, and words and lengths of blessed string -
And K and a co-worker worked hard to get the images to send to his parents. And though K missed some of what was said, he felt what he was meant to feel and admired the man for who he was.


K brought me a string...


and a quote -

The most visible creators I know of are those artists whose medium is life itself.
The ones who express the unexpressible - without brush, hammer, clay or guitar.
They neither paint nor sculpt - their medium is being.
Whatever their presence touches has increased life.
They see & don't have to draw.
They are the artists of being alive...