looking back on 2007, i wanted to share my top-three favorite shots and the stories behind them. i named this picture 'splendor of spring' and its story is one of my favorites of the year.
in may i was driving from seattle to lind for my 30-year high school class reunion. it wasn’t much a reunion; turns out i was one of only two people who showed up...and I didn't even see the other guy until it was over - he was sitting at another table with his wife who graduated in a different year....our class of 18 was not, shall we say, really tight. but i digress.
highway 26 is a long, straight, two-lane highway that begins at the columbia river and cuts through miles of irrigated and dry-land farms before terminating in the roaring metropolis of 'dusty'. just west of royal city, i saw this tree calling to me, about a mile north of the highway. it looked spectacular, even from a distance. i turned onto the nearest dirt road and with a little winding through fields and over canals, managed to get right next to the tree. after a half hour "working" the scene i got back into my car and......it wouldn't start - the battery was completely dead!
i walked a half-mile to a complex of trailer houses with a machine shop and found a mechanic working on a tractor. in my broken spanish I asked him for help and he, in not very good english but using extraordinarily clear communication told me 'no'; actually, 'hell no' would be a better translation. shocked and discouraged, i walked a mile in the other direction and eventually waved down a little guy driving an irrigation pickup. his name was antonio mayorga and he was as happy to help me as the mechanic wasn't - not only 'yes', but 'hell yes'! in a few minutes i was on the road again, lighter by three nice cigars and a promise to send him a custom print of the tree, that he also thought was very beautiful in its spring colors. a couple of weeks later I sent antonio the print and another small collection of cigars.
everytime i see this image i'm reminded of how easy it is to blow off those that may need a helping hand, even in the simplest of ways.....and how equally easy it can be to take just a few minutes out of a busy day to do something for someone else. the mechanic's adamant 'no' didn't anger me; it shamed me because i recognized an all too familiar part of myself in his reaction.
it may sound cliché, but i think of antonio often, like when i'm asked for a couple of bucks from a guy on the corner selling the 'real change' newspaper or an occasional telephone sales person that gets past the front desk in the middle of an urgent project. it's a great choice....take a few minutes to be kind....just because you can.
Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 07:06PM 
