I saw the smartphone ad offering distraction as a tool for getting away with being detached from one's family, and the mom being flippantly smug about it, with even a flash of ironic awareness for all of us to partake in. I saw an election, with distraction as a tool for getting away with being detached from one's community, and being flippantly smug about it, but I'm not sure that the smugly flippant of the participants have awareness of what's been gotten away with. Maybe when there's nobody to pick cucumbers and strawberries, and the trucks go away empty and the shelves are less vibrantly full, and folks get an un-bellyful of what inflation really looks like. But prob'ly not. We've been acculturated at being aggrieved over what we CAN'T have for too long.
As most people who know me are aware, I've long found insight and renewal from being on road pilgrimages on unlikely machines going on two wheels. So, no surprise, I came upon a short, home-prepared video clip of a guy in his late fifties, who quietly acknowledges he's come through a hard period of life, implying, without saying, that it entailed a loss comparable to the untimely passing of a partner or family member. He heads north to the North Yorkshire Pennines from London on an entirely unlikely motorbike (under 20 hp, a single-cylinder bike of less than 300#), back roads and smallish towns, good weather and otherwise. And in 13:32 minutes of film, he appears to have found his way home. You can see a smartphone clipped to his handlebars with route directions. To my point:
The Apple 'mom' in the commercial has utilized the 'power' of her device to snooker and separate herself from the people that have loved and supported her, while winking at us that we could get away with snookery and taking advantage, too. All for a subscription and low, low monthly fee. The self-acknowledgedly wounded Old Guy on the Yamaha 125 followed the maps on his device to find himself and his 'way back home'. While I'd suggest leaving the damn thing behind next time, and carrying a film camera, a pencil and a journal, following paper Ordnance Survey Maps, his pilgrimage with the device offers a way to find our way home. Her example offers a way to wreck one.
I saw the smartphone ad offering distraction as a tool for getting away with being detached from one's family, and the mom being flippantly smug about it, with even a flash of ironic awareness for all of us to partake in. I saw an election, with distraction as a tool for getting away with being detached from one's community, and being flippantly smug about it, but I'm not sure that the smugly flippant of the participants have awareness of what's been gotten away with. Maybe when there's nobody to pick cucumbers and strawberries, and the trucks go away empty and the shelves are less vibrantly full, and folks get an un-bellyful of what inflation really looks like. But prob'ly not. We've been acculturated at being aggrieved over what we CAN'T have for too long.
As most people who know me are aware, I've long found insight and renewal from being on road pilgrimages on unlikely machines going on two wheels. So, no surprise, I came upon a short, home-prepared video clip of a guy in his late fifties, who quietly acknowledges he's come through a hard period of life, implying, without saying, that it entailed a loss comparable to the untimely passing of a partner or family member. He heads north to the North Yorkshire Pennines from London on an entirely unlikely motorbike (under 20 hp, a single-cylinder bike of less than 300#), back roads and smallish towns, good weather and otherwise. And in 13:32 minutes of film, he appears to have found his way home. You can see a smartphone clipped to his handlebars with route directions. To my point:
The Apple 'mom' in the commercial has utilized the 'power' of her device to snooker and separate herself from the people that have loved and supported her, while winking at us that we could get away with snookery and taking advantage, too. All for a subscription and low, low monthly fee. The self-acknowledgedly wounded Old Guy on the Yamaha 125 followed the maps on his device to find himself and his 'way back home'. While I'd suggest leaving the damn thing behind next time, and carrying a film camera, a pencil and a journal, following paper Ordnance Survey Maps, his pilgrimage with the device offers a way to find our way home. Her example offers a way to wreck one.
Welcome to her version of the future.
Insightful piece, Mr. Brooke. Thanks