Yesterday Teton Gravity Research posted this video on FB, and what drew me in to watch the ten minute film was the description they posted along with it “This is one of the most powerful short films that I have watched in a long time.”
The story is about a son who is seeing his aging father begin to withdraw slowly – due to age – from the things that once made him so passionate about life.
A poem that his father wrote for him as a baby has stuck with him since childhood, and so the son challenges his aging father to reconnect with what inspired him in his younger years, and to go back to what he knows is an important place for his father.
They embark on a 28 day boating trip down the Grand Canyon together, and the words that this father had written to his son begin to take on a new significance and understanding for the son.
I can’t stop watching, and sharing this video. I even made Greg and our friend Drew come upstairs right after I finished watching it so they could watch it with me on the Apple TV. It’s an emotional film, and for me, has extra significance because just three months ago, I was embarking on my own 21 day trip down the Grand Canyon with some close friends, and I think this captures some of the magic that is unexplainable, but always happens when you’re on extended adventures that push your normal comfort zone.
I think this film challenges us to all think, what are your important places? Where would you go back to, if you could? What have you maybe distanced yourself from, that in the past has brought you joy?
The poem and the film speak for themselves. The best way to describe them is simple – powerful.
The Important Places
Child of mine, come as you go
In youth you will learn, these secret places
The cave behind the waterfall
The arms of the oak that hold you high
The stars so near on a desert ledge
The important places
And as with age, you choose your own way
Among the many faces of a busy world
May you always remember the path that leads back
Back to the important places-Dad, for Forest, 1986
-Cooley
