"joie de vivre"

This is Max. He calls himself a curmudgeon. I ask you, does this look like any curmdgeon you know?

Max is a dear friend and has been since I first moved to Arizona more than 14 years ago. Our spouses are friends, too, and our kids love each other. We count their family on the short list of "people we would enjoy being with for a week on a houseboat." (Just a little game my husband and I play in our free time.)

Max, "the curmudgeon," is also an artist. Check out his work at http://www.maxhammond.net/. He mostly creates big, beautiful abstract oil paintings, but through the years I have seen him create magic in campfires, kitchen renovations, computer graphics, and children. Max is the kind of person that can take a small group of perfectly peaceful children and whip them into a frenzy of joyful laughter in two minutes flat with his antics and funny voices.

Before this photo, he simply said, "Back flip off the front." I thought he was kidding. I mean, we are not as, um, young as we once were. But he nailed it, with a twist. When he saw the photo, he said, "It makes me want to go out and jump off again."

Maybe Max is a curmudgeon and maybe he isn't, I don't know. What I do know is that he is a person who lives in the moment enough to grab a rare opportunity to "back flip off the front," create laughing children, or generate strong emotions in people he doesn't know through his art. That, to me, defines "joie de vivre" and inspires me to smile a little. I may not try any flips today, but maybe I will skip a little on my way to my next meeting.