What In Your Life Made the Earth Move For You?
What comes to mind if you are asked the question, “What in
your life made the Earth move for you?”
The phrase ‘make the earth move’ often refers to great sex, but this
question and this post refer to something much broader than that.
I stumbled on an HBO special this morning called “Bruce
Weber: A YoungArts Masterclass.”
Basically it showcases how fashion photographer Bruce Weber mentors six
young students in the art of photography.
His basic assignment is for each of them to create a visual
representation of an important milestone in their life, something that was so
powerful that it ‘made the earth move’ for them. The results varied from photo collections and
collages to videos. One showed a student’s
transformation from girl to woman, another showed the impact of an orphanage
that student lived in at one time, another explored the topic of love.
As I watched this incredible program I also began to think
of what my own answer is … what in my life made the Earth move? You should try this. Try thinking about it and try doing their
assignment.
I have a few.
Following the usual vernacular of ‘earth move’ I can say my first sex
was one of those moments, not for the reason usually associated with that
phrase. Mine was powerful in how incredibly
awkward and unsatisfying it was. The
blind leading the blind. I’ll let you
figure out the rest. Fortunately I
recovered nicely.
Three different scenes during my year in the Army were
earth-moving; more earth-shattering, actually. My first day, when reality set in, a day on
the firing range when I actually prayed, asking for a sign relating to my
thoughts of trying to get out of the Army (and I got that sign) and my last
day.
The earth moved the day my furniture moved from my house in Dallas, beginning its journey to my new life in Baltimore. Almost thirty years later I can still remember standing in my empty living room crying, sobbing, as the full weight of an entire life change hit me.
Another earth moving day also involved crying. At the end of my Dad’s funeral, moments after
they slid his coffin into the ‘drawer’ at the mausoleum, I was pushing my Mom
in her wheelchair down the hall on the way back to the car when I broke out
sobbing, loud sobbing echoing in those marble hallways. Dad’s death was expected and almost
predictable and I calmly went through all the other activities that week, being
strong for my Mother and sister, being the logical man my Dad was when helping
to make all the decisions relating to the funeral. The reality exploded within me as I walked
down that hall. Earth-moving.
One more moment stands out … seeing the Grand Canyon for the
first time. That was more a series of
moments … first glimpse of the North Rim in brilliant late-afternoon sun,
photographing a sunset there a few hours later, photographing a moon rise
moments after the sunset, seeing the South Rim for the first time two days
later and watching a sunrise from a trail 30 minutes down into the canyon. Those indescribable sights made the Earth
move for me.
No matter how ‘normal’ or boring our lives might be, we each
experience life-changing moments. Love,
death, disasters, school, leaving home, travel moments, religious events,
concerts, job changes, performing on stage, assisting with a birth; the list is
as unique as each of us is.
So what made the earth move for you?
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Here is a 2-minute montage of the program:
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