Last night, I was listening to a new acquaintance talk about the tendency, these days, for people to make an almost knee-jerk adjustment from experiencing real and intense events to suddenly detaching from that experience by putting a cell phone in front of their faces (supposedly) to record the event…and then walk away.  In his words, “far from feeling rejuvenated…what was once exotic has quickly become familiar…”

I was reminded of the video of the street person who sat at a sidewalk piano and beautifully played a familiar song, from memory.  The grace with which he crossed right hand over left to precisely strike the bass note was poetry.  I was in awe; the spectators were in awe…until a young woman took out her phone to record it.  Really?  Now, in all fairness, the person recording the event for my benefit was doing the same thing, but I think she…