The circus came to town for one night during our Caribbean vacation a month ago.
There were no tigers or lions. It was more like a poor man’s Cirque du Soleil show, with acrobats, trapeze stunts, juggling and the like.
The circus show followed kids’ time, where youngsters danced and jumped around on stage playing variations of Simon Says and musical chairs. It would be best described as an hour of bedlam, as kids from around the globe had a free for all, much to the chagrin of the Spanish speaking host.
Sufficiently played out, the kids and their families began taking their seats for the big show that night. From our spot further back in the theatre, we noticed two young boys who managed to find front row seats right next to the stage, close to the overhead trapeze bars.
As the lights dimmed and the show started their excitement was quite obvious.
One boy experienced the show, much the same as we did. As the performers did their thing he was engaged enough to gasp at a feat of strength or agility. When it looked like someone might fall, he was awestruck along with the audience.
At one point a clown was pretending to watch the show and had some great mime gestures which drew some laughs. There was a lot going on and people had to watch the whole stage to capture the performance.
What we noticed next was peculiar as much as it was puzzling.
The other boy, sitting ringside with his friend, was busy viewing the show through the lens of his iPad. For readers not familiar with that device, an iPad can record or take photos very easily when it’s not being used as a convenient portable-computer tablet. Clearly he was recording the show, as people seem to do these days with mobile phones, cameras or digital recorders.
It made us wonder: was he richer for being able to watch it again, or did he lose out on the first-hand experience and sense of engagement the other boy had?
Each to their own of course, but it raises the question whether technology is now getting in the way of living.
While professional cinematographers or artists of other sorts do an excellent job, it’s hard to compare a virtual snapshot with real-world experience.
The magnitude of this world and everything in it is nothing short of spectacular. On any given day people’s senses are treated to something new – a smell, a taste, a sound, a sight, a feeling.
Travel has made us more aware of these things. Sights on television, videos on the internet or award winning photos in a magazine or other print product rarely capture the depth and scope of seeing something in real life.
We have nothing against these efforts to share people and places with the world. In fact, it’s arguably a great service to humanity what a magazine like National Geographic accomplished in print and video.
We just think it is important that, when given the chance, people take in the world as much as they can, rather than shield themselves with technology that filters real life.
Watching the world through a tablet the size of a cake pan – or a screen the size of a very large stamp – is much like living life with blinders on.
It’s a peculiar sight, given the chance at a ringside seat.
