You are going to be dust sooner than you think, so...

I was born before smartphones phones had been invented, (before even mobile phones were around come to that). I won't bore you with my objections to their use. Not objections to the objects themselves, but their use. Anyway. I'll try to stop being a boring old fart.

But.

But.

I was at restaurant with some friends by an Italian lake one evening.  The view was, well...

And the Moon was out. I walked ten meters to the shore to look. I took a photo.

I said "There's a lovely crescent Moon." (A bit blurred in the photo, wonderful in reality.)

Someone else took a photo on their phone. They showed it to a third person seated at the restaurant table (outside, not in the restaurant). This person said: "But Owen, it's a full Moon! Not a crescent Moon!" 

"It is a crescent Moon... have a look," I replied. They didn't.

The smartphone camera made the Moon look full, on the screen. That is not what I am objecting too. Smartphone cameras are amazing but they can't be perfect.

I object to the fact that someone would rather believe a photo rather than get up, walk a few paces and look at the Moon themselves. Directly.

And I object to the fact that rather than looking at the world in front of their eyes they prefer to look at photos on tiny screens.

I went to see Cirque du Soliel' at the Milano Expo last year. As usual they were amazing, and the climax so full it was hard to know what to look at on the stage. And there were a few idiots in the audience filming it on their mobile phones, looking at the little screens, maybe imagining that like that the experience would be eternally preserved. They were missing everything.

There is only now, especially with something like the Moon over a lake, or a 'Cirque du Soliel' performance.

You are going to be dust sooner than you think, so look at the world in front of you now.

(This post has been a bit preachy I know, but I'm too far along the road to give a flying $!£k.)