Shine Bright Like A Diamond

I am a curious person.

I love diving into anything and everything. I love learning and experiencing different things.

Only yesterday I was explaining to a friend about following a diet designed for your blood type. O positive by the way and bacon and beer aren’t recommended. Uh Oh!

If you too are curious by design Google ‘recomendo’ and subscribe.

It’s a regular newsletter compiled by a group of people who share titbits from all different categories. They are simply recommending as they describe ‘cool stuff’. Stuff to buy. Stuff to watch. Stuff to ponder. You simply choose and follow what speaks to you. Now and then I find specks of gold among the recommendations.

Sometimes, like the other day, I make a note to research something that was recommended. In this case the rare speck of gold was a short 16-minute documentary, ironically titled ‘The Diamond’.

I have only just finished messaging the director and producer Caitlyn Greene. I have no idea if she has done other work, but this was beautiful to watch. Her blurb direct from Instagram for the film reads “Atop the remnants of an ancient volcanic crater, wandering souls search for an elusive diamond”. Greene has travelled to an ancient volcanic crater in Arkansas in the USA where people scour the earths crust to find as one lady describes “A diamond in the rough”. The mining and anthropogenic nature is merely a soundtrack. The magic emerges from each character who speaks. They are untied by their search but united by their stories. A war veteran. A couple who lost a son. A former addict who was saved by a wealthy wanderer. A man who remains digging albeit his buddies have since long gone. 2 elderly sisters. The rawness of these people had me laughing, crying, and cheering.

I found so many parables within the short film. All of us have problems. All of us have backgrounds. All of us are searching for something. A dear friend felt a religious undertone throughout. I simply was drawn in by the realness of the people interviewed. It was a refreshing reminder of the diverse amount of people we share the world with. A pop quiz in the street you live in could paint a similar landscape. People are unique. People are on different journeys. Neil Young sang, “I want to live, I want to give. I’m a miner for a heart of gold. And I’m getting old”.

Having someone share the journey with you is a blessing. Some have different travel companions for a host of reasons. Some joined at the hip for lengthy stretches, for life. The scary yet blunt assessment of the journey we are on is that it will end. Nobody knows when or even how. Death was brought up by chance on a couple of occasions recently. In a ‘Lady & The Tramp eating a strand of spaghetti’ type moment this week my wife and I came together at the dishwasher. Music or a podcast is necessary when I am on domestic duties and as we met David Gray’s ‘Sail Away’ was playing. “I love this song” my wife beamed. “We should have had this instead of that Gold Fields or whatever”. Her innocent yet clumsy recall of the Sting classic ‘Fields of Gold’ which back in 1999 infuriated her as I had used it to lace a moving testimonial video for an outgoing football coach just prior. We hugged and slow danced our way through somewhat of a random wedding waltz 22 years from the original. In a sad, endearing yet appreciative tone she mentioned that one of us would die one day. It is not a place I sit in very often but the enormity of it did strike for a moment. The mind fast forwarded to her or I alone. Without the other.

A couple of days later one of nature’s inevitable processes claimed my youngest daughters’ friends pet dog. She shared her friend’s pain and as we were driving around that day a conversation around death consumed us. I was surprised and a little proud when she stoically stated she wasn’t worried about dying. We both centred on that we’d prefer she didn’t, but her sense of realism was refreshing.

Perhaps the other message emerging from the short film is that we do have the ability to lean on one another or something and that it is important to do so. The 2 elderly sisters spoke about the lack of love from their mother. It was apparent they had needed one another to navigate through that environment. The gentleman whose buddies had all passed was leaning on the mining itself. A practise, habit or even hobby that gives him purpose and fulfilment. If we can stop and really observe I believe there are diamonds everywhere.

I am sure you have been pleasantly surprised that after scraping the surface and digging through someone’s DNA that you do find an amazing person entombed. We don’t know other peoples struggles, battles or otherwise. We can choose to not befriend or look closely at them but surely people aren’t born nasty or awful. Their environment, relationships and moreover upbringing has most likely shaped them a certain way.

Equally you may have ignored or not prepared to dig or search for a gift toward a personal activity or tragically your own purpose. The joy and euphoria of such a moment seems triumphant, like when the diamond appears among the bland gravel around it through the man’s magnifying eye piece late in the documentary.

Bono & his Irish colleagues sang “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”. Aussie surf brand Rip Curls theme is ‘The Search’. Sheila Heen told Tim Ferris on his podcast that she believes humans are born with 1,000 watts of energy each but perhaps only given a 40watt light bulb to display.

The challenge is to keep searching and shine as much as your light as possible.

Be Curious. Keep Digging.