I received a postcard today from my buddy Henry. He's a financial advisor at my bank, which just made international headlines by going belly up...the all-time, world's record, biggest bank bust in history. Not to mention that the NASDAQ dropped more than 700 points this week. At the moment Henry’s doing about as much business as a chimney sweep in Honolulu.
Henry has a smile that can be seen from outer space. Soon after we met, I'd think of reasons to stop by the bank so I could shoot the breeze with Henry. His favorite book is The Pursuit of Happyness. He has an autographed copy on his desk. Whenever I came in, Henry would stop what he was doing, walk over to me, flash that big grin of his and give me a great big ol’ bear hug. Do you get that kind of service at your bank?
Henry is a terrific dad. He asked me to photograph his 12 year old daughter's "jewelry line" so that he could build a website to sell her hand-made creations online. He had a portfolio of the photographs printed so that she could show off her wares. He made arrangements for her to have a "jewelry kiosk" at the convention center when a women's conference came to town. And he struck a deal with her to "pay" him a commission on each sale.
We talked about a lot of things on the phone today, and I told Henry that one of my hobbies is looking for the mystical moments in life…those all-too-rare times when I feel like I’m “in the flow” instead of swimming across the current.
Like when you see a little kid doing something funny and no one else is watching, or the girl at Home Slice Pizza zaps you with a great big smile for no apparent reason, or you're driving in your car with the windows down and your favorite song comes on the radio right when the sun is setting and the sky is that perfect shade of blue...moments that are poignant or moving or inexplicable and that leave you feeling as if there just might be something more to life than meets the eye.
Henry told me that he'd recently had a fight with his wife. They went to bed mad as hell at each other and didn’t speak for a couple of days. Henry wasn’t about to apologize to her, because he didn’t feel like he'd done anything wrong. And then he had an idea.
He remembered that he'd packed away a copy of his wedding vows with the suit he wore 12 years ago when they got married. So he went and put on his wedding suit and read his vows to his wife. That ended their fight…and I added another mystical moment to my collection.
I noticed on the postcard Henry sent me that he had changed his last name from McDonald to Muhammad. When I asked him why the name change, he said “Because I’m pretty sure I’m not Irish”. I'm pretty sure too...Henry is African-American.
I asked Henry if his new last name meant that he had converted to Islam. "No," he replied, “I just like to shake things up every once in a while.”
We talked about a lot of things on the phone today, and I told Henry that one of my hobbies is looking for the mystical moments in life…those all-too-rare times when I feel like I’m “in the flow” instead of swimming across the current.
Like when you see a little kid doing something funny and no one else is watching, or the girl at Home Slice Pizza zaps you with a great big smile for no apparent reason, or you're driving in your car with the windows down and your favorite song comes on the radio right when the sun is setting and the sky is that perfect shade of blue...moments that are poignant or moving or inexplicable and that leave you feeling as if there just might be something more to life than meets the eye.
Henry told me that he'd recently had a fight with his wife. They went to bed mad as hell at each other and didn’t speak for a couple of days. Henry wasn’t about to apologize to her, because he didn’t feel like he'd done anything wrong. And then he had an idea.
He remembered that he'd packed away a copy of his wedding vows with the suit he wore 12 years ago when they got married. So he went and put on his wedding suit and read his vows to his wife. That ended their fight…and I added another mystical moment to my collection.
I noticed on the postcard Henry sent me that he had changed his last name from McDonald to Muhammad. When I asked him why the name change, he said “Because I’m pretty sure I’m not Irish”. I'm pretty sure too...Henry is African-American.
I asked Henry if his new last name meant that he had converted to Islam. "No," he replied, “I just like to shake things up every once in a while.”
Shake it up, Henry.
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