After the Storm

A few days have passed since our big event Friday.  The event was a garden party at Maya Angelou's house for a school in Africa sponsored by Oprah Winfrey.  Oprah and several of the girls of the school were there to celebrate their accomplishments and absorb some of the wisdom offered by Dr. Angelou herself.

To be honest, I had left the event well before the festivities truly began.  Normally, I would feel disappointed in being absent to such a wonderful party adorned with African traditions, music, and activities.  However, deep in my realm of exhaustion, I was quite satisfied for some R&R away from the set.  After hanging pipe and drapes for the first time in my life, some guests trickled in and we, the crew, knew our time had come to a close.  Polishing off a few final pieces, we clambered towards our modes of retreat and sought the refuge of our hotel.

Exhaustion

I had mistakenly worn a nice button-down, steel-gray shirt that Friday as I was under the impression I would be capturing video of the rest of the setup and event.  Needless to say, by the time I reached the hotel in the 24-feet diesel moving van we had rented, I smelled somewhere between a rusty pipe and an over-labored dock-worker.  A long, hot shower helped relieve my colleagues of that burden and it also aided in relaxing a heavily worked back and shoulders.

The crew then congregated in the lobby to begin our pilgrimage for food and drinks.  I, honestly, cannot remember where we ate that night, even though it was only a few days ago.  Not expecting the intensity of physical demand an event set up would have, I can only surmise that my brain shut down to either allow for me to become a diligent worker bee or to save me the painful memories of several bruises, cuts, splinters, and my personal favorite, hefty objects miraculously finding my fingers as the closed their gap with other immovable objects.

Rousing back my awareness, I found myself relaxing again at the hotel.  This time, we were welcoming the cool night air in front of our inn.  We had procured a case of beer and regaled each other with the musings of the past few days.  We laughed about ourselves, each other, and were relieved that we had pulled off an event for two of the most influential woman (and people) in the world.  Our delirium was the result of both exhaustion and the high induced by succeeding in the impossible.

After the Event

The event closed and Clarke made his way back to our miniature throng and joined in the celebration.  As the dusk settled into night, we all took turns speaking and listening.  Clarke had a very unique perspective having had the chance of spending time with both Dr. Angelou and Oprah.  His stories made me appreciate the work that we had put in, the hours, days, and weeks for a brief 3 hour party.  We had made an impact on the girls of this African school and through the labor of our team, given them something extraordinary.

When I had planned on "helping" with the event, I had prepped myself as a cinematographer.  I was aiming to capture the process, the stories, and the people all through the lens of a video camera.  However, somewhere on Friday, I realized that my value was much greater than that of a videographer, I was needed as a team member.  And though I limited myself through telling the story with videos and images, I have a much more lens through which to tell the story.  I have now seen how it is to be on the inside.