The Time of My life: Carving out a path where there never has been one
I am having more fun in my life now than I ever have. Who I am today is the sum of many years of work, adventure, and tenacious pursuit. In a given day I may be involved in prestigious social engagements to reading novels in my hot tub and everything in between. I just simply enjoy my life every single day. It is fun to be the person that you always dreamed of being when you are growing up. But even more than that it is fun for me to watch my kids learning to become the people they want to be—to watch them push their limits, ask hard questions and stretch themselves beyond convention. My oldest daughter is a professional photographer who does wonderful work now, but is continuing to push herself to new heights of skill level. Growing up we had many talks about seeing the truth in life. I chose to pursue that truth through the written word, she has chosen to pursue it through photography. I knew she had shifted into a different gear when she sent me the video below of some new experimental time-lapse photography methods she was trying, but when I first saw it, maybe for the first time in my life, I forgot that my daughter had shot the footage and found myself assuming I was watching film done by a National Geographic photographer.
I share these little moments with the world because it is obvious to me that people have forgotten how to reach for the stars and be all they can be—and I want them to see what it looks like. There is nothing that can be given to the young artist through the welfare system. The eye to shoot a picture, or capture an image on film that is unique to really good photographers comes from living life honestly, and feeling the sting of pain from it often. In that way, a photographer learns to capture images as nature intended them to be, not as the human mind wishes them to appear.
In the clip above my daughter is joyously facing the worst that life has to offer, with a smile on her face, and optimism in her vision to articulate the transitory passage of time. It is over time that fruit is produced from the trees, and the seasons bring with each new quarter opportunities for life—or death. Regardless of what the human being does, or what it desires, time will pass ruthlessly forward. The human being can either ride that wild wave, or be crushed by it. My daughter, as the photographer chooses to ride it.
During our many hours of talks together, I always told her that the treasures in life are where others are afraid to go, to cut through the forest and make your own path where nobody else has dared go. Under such advice, it is not enough for her to take on a job as a civil servant, another typical business professional, or a meaningless bureaucrat. She is on a path of her own making looking for treasures lost to the rest of society, and she is doing it boldly.
It is good to see all those discussions we had coming to life within the context of her existence. The ability to see the world the way she does gives me optimism for the future of mankind that I would not have otherwise. For as cynical as we all have a right to be, it is in young people like my daughter that all the opportunities of existence present themselves. I am looking forward to all she produces in the future for a world that won’t know how good it was till it has passed them by.
Rich Hoffman
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