Just had a curious experience.

A guy that I only see at parties a some friends throw said hello to me while I was sitting in this coffeehouse on a day off from the never ending movie that I’ve been working on as a 2nd camera assistant, gaffer, and still photographer. I’ve been so busy for so long that I don’t know what to do with myself today and I just happened to come in and get some tea.

Dave told me a tale of getting his dream job, of leaping into raging forest fires from planes.

Now that’s…well…pretty damn cool from a pure “pushing yourself” kind of way. I’ve pushed myself a bunch of times in my life, well past where I thought I could go, and I understand that peculiar fetish. What was cooler though was that he talked at me for an hour and it was fun and thrilling simply because he was so damn happy.

How often in your normal every day life do meet people who are happy? I’m not just talking about “hey I got laid last night” happy or contented marriage happy or even the simple excited about getting a new camera happy (which I’ve been the past few weeks).

This guy who just got his dream job, who may have finally found his path, he exploded with happy. And that explosion of excitement made me happy too. It was wonderful just to watch him unable to stop talking about all these amazing things he’s going to get to do which is what he’s realized he’s always wanted to do and been preparing to do without realizing it.

The whole experience was, for lack of a better word, cool.

Plus, if I had the opportunity to jump into a forest fire from a plane, I just might do it. Maybe more likely if I had the option of bringing along a camera.