The weekend is always one of reflection for me. I usually go to the Westerville Field of Heroes, a display put on every year honoring those who serve and have served our country in the military. This year they had 3000 flags on display.
I generally cart quite a bit of my photo gear and have gotten some great pix in past years. They were on Facebook, some of them. Which means, they were pretty much fair game for anyone to use/steal/etc.
This year, I went armed with my trusty Instax Mini90.
I did take one digital pic, though.
Took it with my phone to send to a friend who wasn’t able to make it to the fields this year. I took about 10 or so pix with the instant. I’m really happy with the way they came out. I took a couple of pix of the pix (yeah, I knew I said I wouldn’t do that…sue me).
Sent those to my bro because his company helped with some of the aspects of the First Responder’s memorial.
It was a very humbling and amazing experience, as it always is. If you want to see the rest of the pix from there, or the pix I took at the zoo–let me know–I’ll be happy to hang out and share those with you 🙂 (now…to be completely forthcoming (because I never stretch the truth on this blog) I am going to go back to the zoo with my DSLR and get some digital shots of the Heart of Africa exhibit. It was just so amazing).
This weekend was…well, fun. I found myself laughing a lot more than normal…having fun and socializing. It was truly a great weekend.
While at the memorial, one of the volunteers recognized my zoo hat and we got to chatting about conservation and unplugging from the digital bombardment we are faced with every day.
And we hit upon an interesting topic.
My generation is the last generation to have ever gotten lost. Current and subsequent generations, thanks to their phones will never again need to wonder where they are or how to get somewhere.
Think about that.
That kind of technology is powerful….but also desensitizing.
Do you remember when phones were not portable? Not even cordless?
I do.
Do you remember when your TV only showed local broadcast stations? When they actually signed off for the night and didn’t sign back on again until the 5AM Farm Report?
I do.
Do you remember when the Internet was not accessible by civilians? When it existed only on college campuses?
Do you remember when there was no ‘social media’? No cable TV? And certainly no satellite.
Do you remember when there was a wall that divided Germany. And on one side of that wall was freedom and democracy and on the other side was oppression. And when that wall was torn down by people who could no longer be repressed?
I do.
I know all of those things sound all grandpa-esh, but the thing is…I’m only 42. All of those things happened within the last 30 years. That blows my mind.
And it scares me. We are so happy with how well we advance our technology…so smug with our progress that I’m concerned that no one is stopping to think if we should be advancing it.
I know…pretty heady thoughts for a Monday…er…Tuesday morning (I told you the Field of Heroes always makes me think).
Anyway–enjoy your day my friends. And if you like, try something interesting if you don’t believe me about the technology–go out somewhere for a couple of hours and leave your phone at home.
Then tell me if you don’t think we’re too tethered to our tech.
Peace
-A.T.
Todd Skaggs Writes 