So here I am at the Maine Mall. My wife is shopping and a guy and his wife were sitting next to me and just got up a minute ago.
I wasn’t intentionally eaves dropping and could only hear the husband’s half of their conversation. It mostly went like this…
“Yep, yep… yep, yep.”
It’s actually a good feeling to just be here and not worrying about buying anybody anything.
Of the seven of us sitting here six of us are using our phones. Social interaction may be transpiring but not among us. I’m trying to imagine what this same “waiting around” environment might have been like 50 years ago. Would we all have been just as alone with our thoughts back then instead of our phones like now?
Straight in front of me is the Apple store. It’s long and narrow with large tables with small things propped up on them. Fifty years ago it would have looked very strange, maybe like a Russian supermarket with almost no food. The place has a sort of Maitre ‘d/traffic officer stationed in its center. I’m reminded of Jacques Tati’s film Playtime. He opened that film by tricking the audience into thinking people were sitting dolefully in silence in a hospital but when the camera pulls back you see it’s actually an airport.
Here’s Tati in another scene from Playtime which he directed and starred in 51 years ago showing that he was most prescient in seeing how modern society was moving even then toward “alone together.” Tati would have had even more fun with our world today. So would have Buster Keaton.
pawnedaccordion 