Once Again, Life Imitates Art
June 28th, 2007
Adam and Eve at the Louvre. © 2005, Donn Anning Jones
I Am the Future
June 4th, 2007
Recently on a business trip back to the States I found myself in a suburb of Philadelphia. By coincidence, my father grew up a few blocks away. The houses were 130 years old and it had an inner-city feel of decades gone by; I could easily imagine my father as a boy running down the sidewalk; passing cars now classic and men comfortable in suits. The kind of men that could change a tire in a white shirt and not get dirty.
No one ethnic group appeared to claim ownership of the neighborhood; white and black seemed to mix in a general acceptance of each other and I wondered what it was like in 1945. Though perhaps better than the South for that era, it’s true my grandfather was a racist and I knew a few stories. Many of the shops could’ve been the same but I wondered what the few Korean stores had replaced and why there weren’t any Koreans mixing with us in the street.
One building stood out with a more colonial feel, reminding me of my childhood history books and the Bicentennial images I thrived on when I was 10. I took out my camera—because pixels are cheap— to show my budding historian this quaint, Independence Hall wanna-be. As I sprinted to the island in the crosswalk that faced it, I pulled out my digital SLR. My wife waited at the side walk and approached a group of ladies to ask directions. They were all staring at my peculiar behavior as she approached, “Well, that’s the way the world’s going, I guess.” My wife interrupted the response.
“Well, that’s the way the world’s going, I guess.”? I’m not sure what that means. I’ve thought about it for a few days and all I can come to is that I am somehow the future, and it’s not an entirely positive prospect for some people. In 1976 Johnny Rotten threatened the British public with the refrain, “We’re the future; YOUR FUTURE” but I’m much nicer than Mr. Rotten, my shirt was tucked in and my teeth brushed; I don’t quite understand the concern. I don’t think the women in question appreciate the demise of film and the on-slaught of the Digital Revolution, and were therefore, not cringing at my DSLR. To that threat, I would lament with the loyalists, “Well, I guess that’s the way the world’s going.”
It seemed instead that I was, simply, clearly not from around here and, consequently, didn’t fit their references. I imagine it is the same sense I had recently when I heard two Americans discussing French wine…and comparing it to Coke and Pepsi. It’s only my opinion, but I guess that’s the way the world’s going.
