Some projects transcend. They transcend money, and brand, and whatever else you could have done with your time for the hours you spent on them. You don’t mind getting up early, staying up late, or trying to fit the gear into the space behind the car seats. You do them because getting them done feels right to you.
The video embedded in this post emerged from such an endeavor. Operation Finally Home builds houses for disabled veterans and the widows of fallen soldiers. They’ve done it many times around the country and I bet days like the one we chronicled never, ever, get old for them.
We on the creative side had a minor part to play, of course. We just came to document the day and edit a package together the family could use to remember their move-in day. Many others, like Tim Jackson Custom Homes and their staff and partners, had put in massive amounts of work to build an actual house. If this day seemed awesome to me, imagine how they probably felt.
Neighbors lined the streets to welcome the new arrivals, the Jackels, to Little Elm, Texas. The flags they waved and the hands they clapped and their very presence on a Saturday morning showed how big a deal they felt this day was.
So this project felt transcendent - beyond politics, beyond a small Texas town, beyond the moment. On the other hand, however, it had at its core something much simpler.
It had the desire to make a family in a strange place feel welcomed. It had the pride I took in bringing my 12-year old niece along to learn from the occasion and then using some shots she took in the final video. It had the satisfaction those who designed the house no doubt took in the joy reflected on the family’s faces as they toured the home. It had the simple pleasure one takes in observing, and perhaps tendering, human kindness. Really, nothing feels too much better than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment