Treasured

I have a few key supporters who really value what I have set out to accomplish. You know who you are, and I very much appreciate you. They tell me how they are impressed with my determination, self-understanding, and willingness to pursue my passions against the norm and established forces of the world. They appreciate what I have done and the places I have dared to go.

However, I rarely feel a sense of accomplishment. I tend to focus on all the expeditions that have not been taken, the list of searches I have yet to accomplish. I have fulfilled my essential bucket list; I am grateful for that, but there is so much more I wish to do.

Unfortunately, ambition alone may not open the necessary doors. Money, luck, location, and connections all play a part. I see people blessed with money who accomplish so much more in the world of exploration than I do, yet that hardly seems fair. They can afford teams and tools I can only dream of. I have also worked for many wealthy individuals who choose to spend their money on hopelessly misguided pursuits, yet are arrogantly blind to my advice on matters in which I have more experience. My luck and timing are likewise lacking. As a straight white male in a DEI world, even the long shots and loopholes have now been shut.

Still, I wouldn't change my pursuits for an easier or more successful path in an industry less suited to me. I remind myself of the Carl Jung quote, "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." I am thankful that I have come to fully know my authentic self, and I will die smiling knowing that my legacy will be aligned with my true path. Whether my pursuits touch and inspire five lives or five million, the intent is the same.

I speak of the legacy of my deeds, but as a father, I see my legacy through the inquisitive eyes of my daughter. She both gives me the motivation to do more and yet at the same time be grateful for what I have.

I came across a writing contest that asked for short screenplay submissions. I used the mindset I have explained above as the basis for my entry. A screenplay that won me a runner-up award. I wanted to share a breakdown of it here for you to read as well, along with a message of thanks. Thank you to those who support my pursuits and those who are inspired by them. 

I hope my writings serve to help you find your own meaning, or if you already have, then function as a reminder to go out and pursue it. There is a vast and wonderful world out there waiting for you. As our clan motto goes, on my mother's side, "Audentes fortuna iuvat," or "Fortune favours the bold."

Before I leave you with the screenplay, I will offer you one more of my favourite bits of advice. It is a comment that I overheard during one of my meetings at the Explorer's Club: "You climb Everest to see the world, not so the world can see you."

Treasured

SCENE 1
We see a living room, a young boy is lying back, relaxing on the couch with his arm up, using a remote to flip through the channels. The couch arm and back are slightly obscuring our view of him. We can see the TV as he flips through the channels. He finally settles on a program showing an adventurer, wearing leather boots, cargo pants, a fedora, and a desert scarf. It is some sort of history/adventure program. We see his posture change as he slides out to the front edge of the couch, putting the remote down so he can grip the front of the cushion. The boy is clearly riveted by what he is seeing.

We see an adult male, the father, who enters the frame. The framing of the shot cuts off his face. He motions with his finger, gesturing towards himself that he wants the remote. The boy hands him the remote and exits his “Father’s Spot” as he walks away, head slumped down, while his Dad takes his place on the couch and changes the channel to a classic car program.

SCENE 2
We see the boy now dressed up in a similar fashion to the explorer from the program he was watching. A makeshift scarf and Panama hat, roughly resembling a fedora, but not quite. Torn jeans and high-top sneakers that are currently untied. The boy is tiptoeing across the lawn to come across an altar made of cardboard boxes and crayons resembling Mayan Hieroglyphs drawn on the side.

We pull back from a close-up of the boy looking up, play-acting that this is a very serious moment and that danger lurks from every corner. As we pull back, a golden object comes into view, though it is out of focus as it sits in the foreground of the shot. The boy reaches forward towards the golden idol.

From the side, we now see the boy reaching for what is a transparent bear-shaped plastic jar; the honey inside gives the object the impression of gold. Still acting as though a booby trap may go off at any time, the boy extends his reach to its furthest and grabs the golden bear before losing balance and falling through the boxes. The boxes only settle for a split second before the boy rolls out of the mess and begins to continue past the altar, walking backwards as though he was pushed into the altar and is backing away from imaginary assailants and traps.

From his profile, we see the boy backing up, play-acting concern, when suddenly, from off frame, a hand comes into view on his shoulder and stops him dead in his tracks. The camera pulls back slightly to reveal that the boy is now walking onto the driveway where his dad is washing his blue classic muscle car. With a gentle push, the father nudges the boy back towards the lawn as the camera pans further to the right, showing the father returning to polish the sparkling car. Again, his face is obscured as we see from behind his back.

SCENE 3
We see a small kitchen with a clear front view of the family refrigerator. A grown woman, presumably the boy's mother, walks into view with the small boy following proudly beside her. Again, to put us on the boy’s level, her face is out of frame. She grabs a few magnets off the fridge and hangs a crude child’s drawing on the door of the fridge. She and the boy stop for a moment to admire it before exiting the shot. The camera pushes in slightly to clearly show the boy’s drawing of himself and his father, both dressed as adventurers. The camera holds on that for a moment before a hand comes into view, grabbing one of the magnets. We pan back slowly as the father takes a few magnets off the drawing and reaches up to the upper freezer fridge door to use the magnets to hold up a few Polaroids of his classic car from different angles. The father steps back to admire them before leaving. Just after he leaves, the boy’s drawing, now held by only one magnet, slides down and falls, gently floating left to right before coming to a stop on the floor. The camera then tilts and moves in to show the boy in the drawing, the image then cross-dissolves to the next scene.

SCENE 4
The boy is now a grown man, but we can tell from both the cross-dissolve of the drawing and the similarities in appearance that it is the same person.

The Boy (now Man) adjusts his fedora in a full-length mirror, out of the side of the frame, a woman of similar age steps into the mirror reflection and kisses him on the side of the cheek, she then lifts up a small baby to also kiss him on the cheek. He hugs them both.

We see the man saying goodbye to his family at the front door, grabbing a backpack, and leaving.

SCENE 5
A shot of the baby’s nursery is followed by a fast-forward sequence, showing the baby and mother, and sometimes an empty room. As we look out the large nursery window, we see the sun rise, set, and repeat several times.

SCENE 6
The Interior front door again as the man returns from his travels and is welcomed by the woman and the now crawling baby. He hugs them both and gives the baby a small stuffed elephant.

SCENE 7
Family dinner table. The man, woman, and the baby in a high chair are seated around the table. The man lifts his phone and checks his YouTube app. We see a short video playing of the man in a jeep on some sort of African safari with elephants nearby. He looks down, and we see a close-up of the views; it says 12 views, 0 comments. Slightly defeated, the man goes back to eating. The woman smiles at him, and he half-heartedly smiles and continues to eat, staring off in the distance.

SCENE 8
The man appears excited again; we see he is preparing for his next expedition. He has maps of Nepal, climbing equipment, and winter gear laid out. He examines the map and tries on the winter coat.

SCENE 9
Again, we see the man saying goodbye to his family at the front door, grabbing a backpack, and leaving. The daughter is now 2 years old.

SCENE 10
The mother is tucking the daughter into bed, she cuddles up with the elephant the father bought her (Which now shows years of love and use), and we pan to the window, again showing the passage of time with the cycle of the sun.

SCENE 11
The Interior front door again as the man returns from his travels and is welcomed by the woman and his small daughter. He hugs them both and gives the girl a stuffed white Yeti.

SCENE 12
The man is on his laptop at the family dinner table, the table has a camera and a journal laid out on it. He is clearly working on uploading his last trip. The woman starts to bring dinner to the table. In doing so, she stops, pulls out her phone, takes a photo of dinner, and posts it to Facebook. He puts away his laptop and equipment and sits down to start eating. The daughter joins them. He looks down and checks his phone. We see a Facebook post with him at the top of a mountain covered in prayer flags, the post zooms in, and we see 8 likes, 0 comments. He then switches to the woman’s profile, and we can see the photo she just took of dinner, which has 108 likes and 27 comments. His mood changes, and he quickly puts the phone away.

SCENE 13
The man is in the living room, packing his belongings into a backpack again, this time with a map of Central America. He takes a moment and fires up his camera to make sure it is working okay. Behind him, we see the young girl climbing the couch, using two rulers taped together as a pretend climbing axe. She makes her way to the top of the couch, where she is confronted by the Yeti stuffed animal and pretends to wrestle with it as she rolls back down the couch. The father is oblivious to any of this. With the camera check now complete, he picks up his bags and walks out of the shot while the little girl stops playing and watches him leave.

SCENE 14
The man says goodbye as he hugs them again and exits the front door.

SCENE 15
This time we cut straight to the sun up and down above the house before switching to the return.

SCENE 16
The man returns to the front door and greets his family once again. This time, he gives his daughter a stuffed jaguar animal.

SCENE 17
The man is sitting on the living room couch, he opens his laptop, and he is looking at Twitter. We see a photo of him with Mayan pyramids and jungle all around, he has his camera and scarf around his neck, a big smile on his face.

Cut to a close-up of “0 Followers.” We cut to his face, which is a frown, the complete opposite of the photo posted on Twitter. We can see the defeat and sadness in his eyes.

He slowly closes the laptop, which we see from his point of view. As the laptop screen folds down, we reveal his daughter, with a large sock wrapped around her neck as a makeshift scarf, his oversized fedora hanging off her head, and her lining up her Fisher Price camera to snap photos of the Jaguar, yeti, and now heavily worn elephant he had brought her. For the first time, the Dad notices she is mimicking him.

Superimposed over his view of her, we see an artificial “0 Followers” title come into view, and the 0 rolls over into a 1 with a loud click.

CLOSE UP – We see the father light up with a big smile, near tears, as he takes in the scene.

SCENE 18
We see the family’s kitchen and refrigerator. The fridge has many photos of the Man’s adventures hanging on it with magnets. The father proudly walks into the shot holding a kid’s drawing, followed by his daughter. He quickly pulls his photos off the fridge to free up some magnets and uses them to start hanging his daughter's drawing. The man and his daughter stand to admire the drawing for a moment, their bodies obscuring it for the time being. As they walk away, the viewer gets their first clear view of the image. As the camera slowly pushes in on the drawing, we see that the daughter drew a picture of the father and daughter dressed up as explorers on an adventure together.

Hold the shot for a moment

Fade to black.