Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it seems longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”—Albert Einstein

Things are heating up here, literally and figuratively. August 8th is my big date with destiny. The irony, LAST year, I had the exact same big date with destiny. On August 8, 2006, I was getting on a plane for Zambia, Africa, with fourteen MCC filmmaking students and three Art faculty. I had no idea what we would be walking into, how the project would turn out, or if everyone would come back in good health. It was an exciting and scary time. August is “Monsoon Season” in Phoenix; the time of year when we have lightning storms and rain almost every evening. It’s the time when we get the bulk of our rain for the year. It’s a big deal in the desert.

Speaking of big deals in the desert, this year’s big date with destiny is a bit different. I can’t quite characterize it as an adventure. It has certainly been expensive and fraught with danger but not an exciting adventure. If you’d have asked me a year ago, I’d have told you that I would never face anything more difficult than going to Zambia. I would have been (GASP!) wrong. Sometimes, I feel like one of those goofy Bop ‘Em Clowns. As a child, I remember some of my classmates having those toys. They have about five pounds of sand in the bottom and a whole bunch of hot air up top. The kids could punch the living heck out of them but they’d keep popping up only to get smacked down again. I could never understand the appeal of the toy. Why keep hitting that poor smiling clown? I find it even less appealing in real life. How many smacks in the face must one take and keep coming back up for more? Apparently, the answer is relative. As my friend Robin would say, “It’s all relative, Cyndi.” As a young woman in college, Robin loved that saying. She was always wise beyond her years. (Those are my favorite kind of people—young at heart AND wise beyond their years.) She’d reference the Einstein story about the pretty woman and the hot stove. We’d laugh like hyenas. It’s all relative, Cyndi. In the cosmic scheme of things, what’s going on is pretty small but, in my world, it’s enormous. It’s all relative.

I had a wonderful update from MICHAEL SOKIVETA (a former MCC student) today.

“I don’t think I could have made it in this industry if I didn’t have you as a teacher. Not only are you a fantastic teacher, but you were always patient with me and you always took the time to help me when I needed it.

When I think of people to whom I give credit for my success in web design, the list goes …
1. God
2. Cyndi Greening
3. Dean Householder (Who helped me get my first web design job. I had nothing but a class project to show my interviewer, but it got me the job) … and the list goes on from there.

Last year I started my own design firm, and now I have over forty active clients, and a half-dozen contract and full-time employees that design and program for me. I couldn’t have done it without you as my teacher.

A quick update. Things are going well. My wife (who I met at MCC) is pregnant with our second child (due in November). My wife blogs about our toddler on “his” website, TITUS: Everything I Do is Cute.”

I told Michael the same the I tell ALL of my students. The credit for your success goes to YOU! You did the work, you were passionate about the field, you are creative, determined and inspiring. As his teacher, I simply opened the door and let him walk through to his future, let him meet his destiny. But, just the same, it was great to get the letter! I’ve had some pretty awesome letters this week. DOROTHY BOYLE and BEULAH MARTIN wrote about their continued successes, too. I think it is probably the greatest perk of teaching, hearing what your students are doing with what they learned. Very few professions have that sort of direct connection. Overall, I am a very lucky human!

Photo credit: Thanks to Michael Sokiveta for the great shot of the Dust Storm above!