A few years ago I had the great fortune to find myself guiding a private tour for a really interesting character and his family of three – him, a son of about 17, and his wife. This gentleman had recently sold a huge, advertising agency he’d created in Chicago. Now retired he had taken up professional photography and was interested in capturing some iceberg shots for an upcoming exhibit in New York City. He was great and we developed a brilliant repertoire based primarily on a shared love of photography and conversation.
We chased bergs all around the north-east Avalon, hiked several coastal trails, took amazing photographs and talked about everything from photography tricks to his vast book of clients and the many mad campaigns they’d developed. He was truly fascinating – and he was fascinated with Newfoundland.
On our third morning, we were driving through a spectacular field of glacial ‘erratic’ enroute to ‘Fisher’s Loft’ when I winked at my new friend and shot a wisecrack about ‘glacial pace’ aimed at the young fellow sitting behind me in the suburban. When I didn’t get a verbal response, I looked for some facial recognition in my rear-view mirror but couldn’t find him there either.
Laughing at my confusion, my new friend asked me if I seriously thought his son was listening to us. I shook my head in disbelief and looking back to the mirror again, said, “Yes of course, how could he not be eavesdropping on this kind of banter? This is brilliant!”
“Andrew”, he says, “Take a good look in your rear-view mirror and remember this. What you are seeing right now is the tipping point in the evolutionary process of man.
250,000 years ago, some relative of his crawled out of a cave dragging a stick behind him. Since then we’ve developed tools, reached a little further and eventually stood a lot taller. Homeo erectus – and as you’d say, eh boy!
Now I can put a pen in that man’s hands and he can create beautiful poetry, write books or etch magnificent drawings. He can do amazing things with a tennis racquet, a musical instrument or a hammer.
But you know what he does the minute I put a “smart phone” in his hands? He immediately hunches forward and scurries back into the cave like a cro-magnon again.
No, he’s not listening – and he can’t understand anyway.
But the good news is…. He needs people like us to create the content for his amusement!”
“… hunches forward and scurries back into the cave…”
