Bifocal vision - when the streets seem familiar and strange, memory-filled and yet foreign

 

County seat of Clinton County (MI), St. Johns (pop. 7000) with fire station mural of 1st responders.

Visiting a place once inhabited for decades after the space of several years, twin visions fill the imagination as memories superimpose the present-day sights and sounds. A few familiar friends and acquaintances add to this bifocal vision: seeing things no longer there but also seeing what is currently in view. Dozens of times I walked or biked past this building before any public art covered it. So I can see it in my mind's eye and also see it today.

Summing up the different experience of a place when you live there versus pass through as a spectator, tourist, or audience member, the local resident wakes up and conducts the business of daily life. He or she considers the grid of streets, the cultural landscape of landmarks and well-known events (seasonal cycles and one-time occurrences, too), and the social terrain (who is connected to whom, which paths offer least versus most resistance to organizing, collaborating, and getting things accomplished) as the field of play; a backdrop to the drama and stories of one's days and trail of decisions. But things are different for the outsider just observing the surfaces or intermittently paying attention to details but otherwise distracted by one's own preoccupations and pending matters of one's own home ground. For the visitor, only the tangible characteristics come into brief focus (buildings, sensory impressions, stories gleaned from readings or local guides or acquaintances residing in that place). All of the daily minutia passes unnoticed. In other words, local people traverse the local sea of meanings to make their lives thrive. All of the surroundings have consequence and value and comparisons to be made. All the surroundings are familiar; the opposite of exotic and strange. But outside people cross the local sea of meanings mostly unaware and uncaring about what lurks beneath the waves, what hazards are well known, and without the local lore that makes things interesting and memorable.

Jumping the elements of Proper Nouns (persons, places, things/events), a similar bifocal distinction occurs. Whereas a person you know well is three-dimensional and is part of many contexts and conversations and memories, a stranger seems only two-dimensional (lacking personal familiarity to the observer). Likewise of an annual event or a one-time occurrence: locals fit it into their quilt of many meanings, memories, and relationships, but outsiders lack these many personal interactions. Using the distinction of know (static: facts, data) versus know (relational: to people, places, software, tools, procedures/processes). The local person knows things in the relational sense of the word. The outsider knows things about the place, people, and things.

But when you are both filled with local lore, memories, relationships AND you are coming back as an outsider, having made daily living experiences for 10 years elsewhere, then the experience is double-layered: both insider and outsider at the same time. In anthropological terms, you have drifted to the middle position between familiar and exotic, between de-exoticized vision and de-familiarized/strangeness, being BOTH active participant and passive observer.

By extension, a similar familiarization process occurs when getting to know a rental car - at first strange, but eventually easily operated and familiar; ditto of a new piece of software (or app); ditto of the encounter of a new genre of food, music, or literature/film. 

In all of these parallel illustrations of the natural/normal/accustomed/automatic versus the strange/unfamiliar/awkward, a person's relationship to the new thing progresses, step by step so that what began as ungainly and static and lifeless can eventually become fluent and an organic extension of one's own body and mind.

The advice to a person traveling to a new place, entering into a new personal interaction, or learning from a new experience is to aspire to the middle position that is bifocal: able to see both the new AND the familiar, to be an outside observer AND an active player in the arena of activity. That way you have the best of both visions: local and outsider, always ready to expand what people say and do when you enlarge the conversation by drawing on your dual perspective.

Church in 2025 - apps, QR codes, and prayer requests

 

Several notes while visiting the venue for art exhibits hosted at a Protestant Church 9/2025 zip 49503

Many churches and their people take seriously the principle to be "in the World but not of the World." So it is not surprising to see similar features of everyday commerce, consumerism, and confusion experienced outside of church now to be applied to the functions of social interaction, coordination, and communication inside the church life, too. These two photos near the entrance closest to the church parking lot show some of the video kiosk messages that cycle through the screen. Several colored highlights later added for this article point out additional notes about the scene visible here.

The lefthand photo shows the "How can we pray for you?" slide in ALL CAPITAL letters for legibility and emphasis (the visual equivalent of shouting or using an 'outdoor voice'). The smaller text explains that your requested concern or joy will go out to prayers of that week to repeat in their daily habit of saying prayers for self and others. The screen message in the righthand photo is about forms of giving money to the church so as to sustain its activities, staff, supplies and other costs. Church-goers can send money by postal delivery (by mail), online (secure website), by app (phone or tablet), or by using the physical Giving Boxes located inside the church building. The QR code in the lower left corner of the video screen is also transcribed as URL that one can type or dictate into a computer or portable device to see how each of the four methods of giving will be handled.

In the righthand photo there are a few other colored mark-ups. The lavender one above the video screen is a video surveillance recorder to monitor the entryway from the church office or maybe from administrator cellphones. In the event of some offense or trespass being committed within view of the lens, the recording allows replay and analysis by city police, for example. Just like real life outside of the church premises, there are good reasons to observe and record the entrance. And yet, it does seem to displace any illusions of innocence or trust among strangers as well as friends. The blue box toward the right edge of the image points to the coffee shop atmosphere in this socializing space adjacent to cooking facilities. Since food and fellowship go together very naturally, it makes sense that the church makes the food and drink one of the first impressions a visitor gets by entering through this doorway. No religious paraphernalia or references seem to be at hand there. The green circle at the midline of the composite image says, "Connect with Us" and has four spokes. These are business card-sized reminders of church groups one can readily fit into (left to right): Students, Support groups, Women, Life groups.

In summary, a generation or two earlier, before the widespread use of portable telecommunication and Internet services, church membership was face to face on worship days (usually wearing "church clothes" - something fancier than everyday wear) and sometimes also on other days of the week, depending on the groups one took part in. But in 2025 many of the various age groups are used to interacting with each other on computer or phone screens and so the boundary of church and non-church is blurrier: some non-church expectations and processes filter into church life. And perhaps the reverse also is true - some church routines and habits figure into one's thinking and reactions to things experienced away from the Body of Believers. With software so ingrained in daily habits, it is hard to imagine how church-goers would think of relating to each other unmediated by mass media and social media. 

High-altitude view of our society these days: 2025 Art Prize prints

 

Fly-over art of timing big sporting event with air traffic, too

Many visitors to the 2025 Art Prize competition pause to peer at the rich detail from something like 3,000 feet above ground level that the artist, Tyler Leipprandt, has photographed in coordination with excellent helicopter pilots to put him in the right position with the right angle of light and the timing to show a passing aerial spectacle above the packed sporting events; all this with required permissions in hand. The entry is called The Art of the Flyover. The adjacent video loop at the left end is also captivating, ending with a link to "the making of" some of the rare sights: www.michiganskymedia.com.

There are many sorts of significance that a viewer can see in the giant prints. Some may have been in attendance at one or more of the mass sporting events that drew the photographer's attention and sparked the weeks of planning to put his lens in the exact alignment for the exact instant that all the elements clicked into place. So there is personal meaning. Then there are fellow (aerial and drone) photographers that marvel at the result so well expressed and in such large prints. Others may have no personal resonance or experiences with this technique, but they simply respond to the novelty of seeing the world in an unfamiliar way. There could be one or two visitors who consider buying a copy for business lobby or for home exhibition. As well, there are social observers and ethnographically inclined viewers who recognize that this frozen moment in time is a kind of mirror for the society in general.

Looking at the patterns visible from a great height there are many things to observe. One is the relationship of people to nature: trees, grass, garden features, and public parks are allowed, but only in their proper place; only after the livelihoods and living places are catered to. Outside of the cities and suburban settings, the ratio is reversed so that farmland and wildland is in the majority while the built landscape is scattered across it in bridges, culverts, roads, and utility lines. Secondly, the phenomenon of mass spectacle (broadcast on TV, livestreamed or recorded online, in person in bleachers): ticketing in priced tiers, parking requirements of vast scale, water and sewer demands during the 2 or 4-hour event, traffic complications before and after the occasion, catering to customer tastes in food and beverages, allowing fans suitable ways for them to make souvenir photos of the venue and teams and crowds and event itself. Maybe things have changed from ancient Greece or Rome, but there are surely common threads then and now. Thirdly, there is the technological wonder: myriad details have to intersect exactly to make the internal combustion engines run, the infrastructure of road maintenance and signage and emergency services; but equally complex are the myriad details going into the moment when the photographer frames and releases the shutter to record the moment when a speeding aircraft passes over the crowded stadium - all eyes looking at it - and also for the weather and piloting of the helicopter to be angled just right, too. From concept to planning & permissions to getting to altitude and recording to finally producing a finished picture is a staggering amount of control and quality assurance. Finally, there is the phenomenon of the ArtPrize.org competition and the many visitors who see the art for the first time, possibly interacting with the artist, and he with fellow artists and members of the news media on site. In other words, imagining and creating the art is only half the exercise. Until someone buys the picture for public display or private ownership, the full cycle of life is not complete. Living in spaces of social media, cameras for recreation and for surveillance to mediate daily experience, and marketplaces for creative work means that buying and selling art, building a public reputation, and engaging with "followers" and patrons who may commission future work is a living part of being a creator in 2025.

Much of one's own life seems to depend on documenting it for self and for others; something much less common during film camera (still and video) generations; something practically non-existent in the days of no consumer-grade cameras before 1910 or 1900. In other words, now in today's social experience and arc of life, failing to take a few snapshots or video clips along the way means that old-school memory and written notes are the only trace of one's experiences. Lack of visual proof is something that has become a source of distress in these times of ubiquitous cameras. This gives new meaning to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out - something others do and one's own self failed to do). In the case the gallery display shown in this example, which seems to be more real to gallery visitors (or to the people in the stadium at the moment of the flyover spectacle): the large, mounted photo print or the few seconds of roaring jet engine and rare view of famous aircraft buzzing the crowd?

The society is BOTH an aggregated set of individuals of diverse biographical timelines AND a pattern of collective future expectations, past experiences, and present ways of behaving and reacting. Since almost all the spectators filling the seats on these game days arrived in personal automobiles (or shuttle services by bus from remote parking areas), it is safe to assume all of them share the worldview of personal transportation to buy and maintain. And the value of taking pictures during their big day out also is largely shared. Showing team loyalty in choosing colors to wear or merchandise to buy is another feature of mass sporting events that will be familiar to all those in the photo down below. Finally, there is a delight in technological wizardry that makes possible the mysteriously shaped B-2 Stealth Bomber, the magic of electronic warfare in specialized jets, and the deadliness of a formation of fighter planes.

Taken all together, the big pictures in this year's Art Prize competition capture visitors' interests, as well as capturing the flyover subject at the center of the aerial photo project. The big pictures also give social analysts a big picture view of the society in 2024 and 2025 in which mass sporting events still draw people away from their living rooms to attend the competition on the field of play in person.

Community insight 2025: weekly calendar for public information in rural Michigan county

p.3 of Leelanau Enterprise for 9/4/2025 (markup added)

As a rural county miles from the big population centers in the southern 1/3 of Michigan's lower peninsula, the weekly events page of Leelanau County's towns is not representative of the society around the state as a whole, but this list of public happenings, grouped by category, does say something about the local response to local needs. As such it is one kind of mirror for this moment in history when people of all generations and genders are increasingly isolated and independent from each other, even though electronic wizardry makes it possible to know about each other more than ever before.

Counting the number of entries in each category, the most frequent topics fit into SOCIAL EVENTS (16 times) and GOVERNMENT boards and meetings (15x). FAMILY support is least numerous (7 times). The added color for each entry points to the essence of the event. ADDICTION/SUPPORT is mostly centered on alcohol abuses, even though parallel associations do exist elsewhere for substance abuse other than alcohol, too. In the CHARITABLE/COMMUNITY category there is a weekly Rotary Club announced, but the 13 other entries are food distribution and baby supplies. In the neighboring column for FAMILY there are storytime (library), playground time, and parenting guidance and conversations. In the SOCIAL category there is fellowship: coffee hour, creative writing get-together, bridge (group card game), a big-screen event viewing (race cars), Spanish conversation, tap dancing, hiking, tai-chi, garden club, and farmers markets in several locations. Finally, in the heading for GOVERNMENT, there are boards of education, township boards, and fire & rescue governing boards that meet for public audiences. In many cases it is churches (and libraries, too) here meetings and other activities are hosted.

Standing at a distance as an interested outsider, this full page of events suggests a relatively engaged and engaging social fabric; that is, enough people take leadership and enough people turn out to make the get-together worthwhile such that there is mutual enjoyment and profit or meaning derived in these things. But at the same time, the fact that people cannot afford food and baby supplies, and others are burdened by addictions suggests that the system of wages and stressors is not good. This is hardly unique to this particular one of Michigan's 83 counties; nor is it peculiar to rural environments of small towns and the dispersed patterns of living spaces. However, the calendar is a visible record of things that otherwise might go unnoticed in day-to-day relationships and what people see or hear around them, incrementally sliding into deeper debt, desperation, or disease. In other words, this snapshot of early September 2025 is both hopeful (many interactions of people available, even if there are only a small number of active participants in any given week) and worrying (POTUS #TrumpConvictedFelon and his sock puppet handlers call their demolition of democratic practices and supporting structure a Big Beautiful Bill which will take effect AFTER the November 2026 elections are held). Once the full horror of no healthcare, safety regulations removed, federal offices abolished, military forces summoned on a whim --then the calendar page for the Leelanau Enterprise weekly newspaper may double in events, or it may disappear altogether when nobody can pay for anything or use precious unpaid hours to get involved in community socializing.

Genius of ordinary Americans in the USA and elsewhere

 

fast-food table and benches with uneven floor: napkin solution

Stopping for a snack at a hamburger franchise, just after getting ready to leave the booth, this small gesture of kindness caught my eye. It is the unsung solution to a practical problem that a fellow diner identified, took ownership of, and used local materials to fix. And while the immediate beneficiary may have been the person alone or those she or he was dining with, the stability of the table goes on to benefit others for days or weeks; at least until a cleaner goes beyond sweeping and douses the floor in water to mop up. That could dislodge or perhaps weaken the napkin solution to the tippy table.

Why would a customer intervene and fix the problem rather than ignore it, complain to the supervisor directly (or from a distance if going online to lodge a complaint)? It is true that not every customer is inclined to veer outside their lane in the role of consumer. But it happens often enough, that there must be some precedent, cultural expectation, or personal satisfaction in making things work better - big or small. Perhaps the rate of interaction or engagement parallels the findings of Website engagement: estimates of the proportion of website visitors who actually proceed deeper or who respond to surveys and other forms of interchange say that maybe a maximum of 3% of the people go beyond passive consumption of scrolling and actually start clicking and writing. That is something like the proportion of people in civil society in the USA who show up to demonstrate, communicate with elected officials, run for positions paid or volunteer, or who belong to service clubs like Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary, and many others. In other words, even though it is only a thin slice of the demographic pie, these people account for a disproportionate amount of social infrastructure, vision, engagement, and accountability.

Impressionistically, this willingness in certain circumstances to leap from spectator to player on the field may be related to the colonial phases of occupying and modifying the land and water, displacing (or worse) the people and other living plants and animals of the place. When there are few or no authorities and experts to call upon in a frontier setting, it is up to the person and those nearest to hand all to work to fix the problem - both the kind affecting many people (risk of riverbank erosion and flooding; oncoming wildfire; stampedes of buffalo) and the kind affecting just one neighbor, but too big for one person to respond to. That experience for most people residing in 2025 USA is many generations in the past, and yet something of the outlook (dismissing authority, celebrating skillful problem-solving and practical mindset, optimism, and minimizing pretense so that everyone can be equal in the moment) does seem to persist - reproduced in family stories, popular culture (books, movies, classroom projects), and so on. 

No matter what theory best explains local people or strangers passing by to spot a problem and then speak up or directly intervene, the fact is that such things do arise from time to time, normally without public awareness, accolades or other formal acknowledgement: just solving the problem is its own reward in this culture logic. So here is a bow or tip of the hat to all those unnamed people who quietly fix things that many others benefit from.

Seeing the world with new eyes and corrected lenses, too

Ophthalmologist's retail section for eyeglass frames

Seeing so many eyeglass frames on display can be akin to the experience of facing Too Much Information, TMI. But with the experience from earlier frames, the customer can usually narrow the search and only look for something similar, rather than having to study each and every variation on size, shape, color, texture and so on. If it is the first pair ever worn, then the staff can make suggestions to begin with, too. But a larger reflection from seeing this scope of choices and range in prices levels is that good vision is usually available to everyone who has no large visual impairment. Those with insurance subsidy do not have to pay out of pocket for the entire expense. Those with no insurance, and who cannot afford any payment probably will be eligible for basic eyeglasses paid for by the business owner, a local funding source, or possibly a program of the state government or a charitable (service) club with focus on vision, such as Lions/Lioness Clubs.

Besides the fact that modern life allows most people to have some kind of corrected vision, including the well-developed ecosystem or infrastructure (testing, trained professionals and licensing, supply chains and production capacity), there is the philosophical dimension of extending the useful life of vision for most everyone. Centuries ago, a variety of eye problems - congenital, developmental, or by accidents of life and livelihood - reduced the visual powers and pleasures and functionality of people young and old. In addition to the eye conditions at birth or later on in life, the aging process generally results in weaker visual power ('old eyes' or prebyopia). At the same time, literacy was less important to most people's day. So impaired vision was perhaps perceived as normal and less a hindrance than it would be today when oceans of printed matter fill the landscape and mailboxes, too. On top of that are the tiny screens and microscopic text size of Internet portable electronic devices.

In summary, as a practical matter it is good that modern life's literacy-dependent routines and decisions also come with relatively ubiquitous eyeglasses (or contact lenses, or corrective surgical procedures). Being able to see clearly is not simply a quality-of-life issue, it is basic to survival in the Information Age. But good vision is also a philosophical matter, since "I see" means both visual perception but also "I understand." In other words, what we see is often the same as what we know. Naturally, there are times when the meaning of something is NOT what it looks like at first glance ("don't judge a book by its cover," and "looks can be deceiving" since "you only see what you want to see"). However, there is a close relationship between good vision and good understanding. A land of poor vision may well also be a land of poor understanding or incomplete (mental) pictures of life. 

So at this high-altitude, abstract and philosophical level, when looking at this photo of hundreds of eyeglass frames, it is fair to think of all the people now walking around with corrective lenses (contacts or eyeglasses) in modern times who, long ago, may have gotten along in life with weak or even non-functional vision. Stated in reverse: the fact that most people today do have the opportunity to see clearly suggests that most people today also have the opportunity to scrutinize, focus on, and look into matters in such a way that they expect to produce sharp images and understandings; not a blurry or an unknowable grasp of reality. Widespread visual health may be overlooked or taken for granted, but it is more than a mere convenience and a basic condition for living in a word-heavy cultural landscape. It is also a worldview; a set of assumptions that one's surrounding life should be in focus and transparent. 

Landscape photographers far from the madding crowd

 

More than 8 billion persons on the planet, but here are places seemingly free of humans.

This screenshot of photo landscapes in the photo sharing user group called LANDCAPE, https://flickr.com/groups/landcape/pool/ shows a wide variety of locations, lighting, and composition elements. What is in common for nearly all of the uploaded contributions to this international group, apart from the outdoor subject matter, is the effort made to exclude people from the scene. Of course, despite the absence of human figures, there frequently is indirect evidence of people shaping the land, leaving paths or roads, leaving ruins, and so on. 

Clearly, the object of delight in the photo sharing group is the land itself, together with the light and shadow that falls upon it. But pausing to consider the dominance and prominence of humans on all other life forms in the air, land, and sea, these pictures do seem strange: how can such a great number of people covering the planet NOT be found in the photographs? The answer is that the photographer has chosen a season and time to release the shutter when people are outside the frame of the composition. In other cases, the difficulty in reaching the viewing point means few people venture there. In other words, despite the high human population around the planet, it is not evenly distributed: some places are densely lived in, but other places are not. In other words, yes, the planet Earth is heavy with humans and their activities that threaten other animals, plants, and microbes by destroying habitats or directly destroying those non-human lives. But the photographers in this sharing website are recording places - or at least brief moments there - where people are not visible. 

POTUS Ghosts (President of The U. S.)

 

Contrasting Gen. Geo. Washington (L) and DJ Trump (R)

Apart from biological sex, there is almost nothing about George Washington and #TrumpConvictedFelon in common. GW created institutions, systems and processes, much as he did while leading the armed forces of the American colonials against the forces of the British king. DT destroys everything he touches. He is entropy in primate form, forcing orderly things into disorder, civilization into chaos. GW carefully shaped the new office of President to perform executive functions for the benefit of all who rejected the British king's claims of authority. DT continues to try to displace the other two (co-equal) branches of the federal government, the judges and the law makers. One is a fine specimen of human and humanity, the other lacks basic awareness of anyone except himself. 

It takes generations to imagine, create, and improve systems of governance. But it only takes 20 days for #TrumpConvictedFelon to follow the script from his cadre of puppeteers and upend the pulse and progress of monthly cycles and rules for governing. The people who drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights assumed that anyone fit for office would serve the best interests of the citizens and abide by the oath sworn on inauguration day. But #TrumpConvictedFelon does neither of these things; instead his actions to weaken the national government and its functions abroad and at home can only serve the purposes of hostile governments.

Once the stupefying facts and methods of the law breakers dressed like lawyers and investors are clear, then opposition can begin. If there is no opposition, the past record of gun carrying citizens suggests that one or more people will take matters into their own hands. Already there are signs of distress in quiet residential neighborhoods.

Upside down flag means emergency or political protest or both

 

Comparing worship service live (in-person), live streaming (online), and playback (of earlier live stream)

 

February 7, 2025 Symposium of Worship at Calvin University

The annual gathering of church leaders in music, preaching, as well as lay leaders held five public worship services during the 3-day proceedings in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These screenshots come from the live stream of the fifth and final in the series about the 2025 theme of parables. The recorded version is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNw-dGSgZl8. The same images are bundled into a slideset, downloadable in PDF for closer viewing and readability of the subtitle text, too.

Having attended the first worship service on the Wednesday in person, now to experience the same venue on a different parable and preacher and music groups, but now via the live stream offered a good opportunity to compare these two forms of engaging in the worship rhythm and substance. Both the in-person and the live-stream contrast to the playback of the uploaded, finished recording of the worship service. So all three ways of engaging can be examined here.

LIVE STREAM: Demonstrated in the Friday final worship service, there is a risk of technical glitches (audio interference on certain frequencies) having to be fixed on the fly. Events unfold in linear sequence; there is no jumping ahead or behind the present moment of engagement. Unlike in-person, the lens and editorial decisions about which camera position to select is restricted. Viewers see what the live editing team has selected. One cannot look left or right, study one person or another, or close eyes to take in the whole.

IN-PERSON at the worship service: This is a multi-sensory presence, wrap-around immersion; of being there: temperature and seat support, light in one's eyes, sound too quiet or too loud for personal preference, surrounding sounds and 3-D sound waves filling the surfaces, and even the smell of fellow worshipers.

PLAYBACK: One can chose the time and location for playback on demand; stop and start, set playback speed and volume. One can read comments by others and add one's own in reply to others and in response to the recording itself, as well. It is possible to make note of bookmarks (time marks) to revisit later or tell others about, to scrutinize or to excerpt. At times a person might want to engage with certain segments non-linearly, jumping back and forth; like reading a book according to one's aims or habits, not necessarily non-stop from start to finish. There is also the risk of distraction, notifications intruding on screen or one's wandering attention and intention (commitment to undivided attention).

In conclusion, when it is practical to participate in-person at the scheduled time and location, that is the richest form of building memories, sparking ideas, and mingling with others. Nextmost immediate is the virtual, ghostly sense of "being there" (almost) in the online live stream. But maybe the most utilitarian and usable is the recorded version to dissect, share, compare and contrast, reflect upon and digest little by little. It can offer rich rewards, according to the effort poured into it. But for most people that is a high bar and so the in-person experience fills the mind and imagination with least effort and most vivid sources of memory.

Engaging in the moment through one's lens - reality vs. representation

 

Live at the ice piano for the 2025 World-of-Winter festival

The video version of this scene filled with cameras is online. But the freeze-frame is easier to study here. Of the 50 or 60 audience members who came to the outdoor venue in Canal Street Park in downtown Grand Rapids, perhaps 1/4 or more took out cameras (mainly camera-phones) to snap a memento photo or video clip. Maybe 10 people came with tripods or big cameras and external microphones or both in order to record broadcast quality from the evening to share with others. A few of the professional-looking photo & videographers wore lanyards with photo ID, in what looked like a press pass or other credential to do their job here, in some cases blocking the view of the audience members or getting in each other's way to get the right framing for their compositions.

     Despite the mostly quiet and courteous movements of these photographers, it did nevertheless distract from the sole focus on the piano playing and the lyrics of the songs. But so ubiquitous was the picture taking by a variety of people for a variety of reasons, that it raises the question about this phenomenon: in what ways is one's experience (and by extension, memory and the way to share memories with others) mediated by carrying a powerful device for recording sound, video, and still photographs?

Pianist at the left, photographers at the right

     On the one hand taking pictures or video, and seeing others do so, is normal and possibly even expected these days. In a few situations people are specifically requested NOT to take pictures or video (some airlines include their policy during the preflight announcements: out the window is fine, but not staff or fellow travelers as photo subjects). But on the other hand, the attention diverted to the screen and the controls reduces the person's own embrace or immersion in the moment to moment rhythm and breath of the performance as well as the space that the photographer is part of then. Of course there are hands-off recording devices ("life loggers" or POV action cameras) that do not require any intervention from the person: everything is recorded for later review and selection of relevant segments. That approach might be the best of both worlds: recording but not involving the person who carries the device.

     One way of understanding the frequent use of cellphones for video or photos is something analogous to language itself. Just as many people feel the need to put an experience into words - simple description, or maybe more extended reflection and analysis - the same may be happening visually these days: the person wants to own a fragment of the moment which they can share with others as proof of having been present, as a way to replay the moment, and perhaps to give to others who may have relevant expertise or interest, too. In other words, without articulating the experience in words or images, somehow the moment passes when new things displace it. So reaching for one's cellphone in this case is a way to hold the experience closer than merely spectating as one minute passes after another.

     In any case, the sight of cameras popping up again and again is likely to continue for a long time as more and more people get used to picture-taking for self and for seeing others doing this in formal as well as informal settings. Rather than reacting with annoyance, or the reverse, joining in with the other photographers, it makes sense to understand the several reasons why people consider the positives outnumbering the negatives when pulling out a camera in all sorts of situations that seem significant for personal, professional, or avocational reasons.

College students borrowing books then and now

DIY book lending station at Calvin University's Hekman Library

Until sometime in the 1970s library books had to be recorded on the card located inside the cover of the book before the borrower could take it outside the library. Often they took out several books at a time, so the process of stamping the due date and recording the borrower's identifying information took time and effort. Those marked cards then had to be filed so that upon return the book could be reunited with its own card. This was manual labor in the most literal meaning and required many trained student workers. 

     The next stage was to use computer punch cards so the checkout desk could insert the book's punch card into the dedicated machine that recorded the time and date of borrowing, while pairing this with the borrower's campus details. The due date was still stamped in the back of the book for quick reference by the reader to come back for renewal or to return it for circulation to other borrowers.

     After that bar codes were added to the punch cards for optical reading and registration of the book to the borrower. When the book came back to the library then its barcode could be scanned optically with something very much like the one in the photograph, above. In this way the book(s) could be tied to the borrower's ID barcode with just a blink of the light in the scanner beam. And reminders of approaching due date could be emailed to the borrower. As well, the borrower could renew the book electronically (no need to present it at the checkout desk) - if no other borrower was waiting for it.  

     Fast-forward to the February 2025 photo, above. The old ideas continue: build library collections of physical books, lend them to people with library cards, track the book's return (and its condition), and track down any books not returned in a timely way. What is different in this photo is the self-checkout station. Gone are the student hourly employees to receive the book returns and reinsert the correct lending card in the jacket. Gone are the student workers to check out the book. Of course, the books still need to be sorted for efficient reshelving by human hands. But much of the accountability and tracking now is digital and relies on borrower honesty; although, probably there are video surveillance recordings in case anybody seeks evidence of a particular book exiting the building without being scanned first.

     This photo not only shows the absence of library workers and the sign for "self-checkout computer." But also the picture shows the card catalog underneath the countertop. Each title in the collections has a typed card that corresponds to the book or pamphlet. Since a person used to be able to search by author, by title, and by call number, each title must have been filed in several different ways. Since there are unpublished documents like sermons for the campus seminary program, perhaps the old catalog is still in use for certain collections. But probably anything written since 2000 or 1990 is searchable by electronic records, instead.

All in all the photo seems to sum up the present moment in the relationship between college students and the library collections intended for their use. Some content is online instead or in addition to the printed volumes. As a result there are some students who prefer to engage with ideas on their phone, tablet, or personal computer. Others search online for notes and summaries that others have already done, thus offering a predigested impression of the title. And since 2023 the average person has access to a certain amount of Artificial Intelligence bandwidth (search time use) to produce summaries on demand. The upshot is that fewer college students are used to wandering the open stacks in the catalog classification that fits their subject area. So the chance of serendipity to find an unknown and unbidden title is lost. And with less time spent in tactile experience of pages and indexes, college students are less comfortable with flipping around the chapters, skimming and scanning with their eye for keywords or passages that may suit their research interests. 

     The upshot is that fewer books go home with students. Fewer ever leave the shelves for reading while standing or briefly at one of the study tables. Perhaps the old and new books have each other for company, but without the touch of warm human hands, they must still be feeling a bit neglected.

Prices go up for ingredients at the bakery

Day-old baked goods rise in price since costs are going up

There is a premium bakery in Grand Rapids, Michigan that prides itself if using the best ingredients. Many people are willing to pay the high price for delicious bread, pastry, and other baked goods. Others shop on the prominent rack of leftovers from the day before; the "day-old" display. Until lately, everything rang up at 1/2 price from the freshly baked price. But now the hand-lettered sign declares "Day-old 25% off." When asked, the clerk described the rising costs of dairy and eggs in particular since they use so many and because the Avian Flu has led to mass extermination of flocks in an effort to stop the virus transmission to other birds and then to egg farms. However, the new pricing of day-olds is for pies and bread loaves, not the smaller items bagged up and sold as "buy one at full price and the second one is free"; in other words, two for the price of one, or 50% of the fresh pricing. So in this photo, the day-old wheat bread was marked down 25% but the bag of 2 muffins and the bag of 2 morning buns priced out at the old 50% discount.

Talking with the clerk further, it turns out that certain parts of the display case of pastries sell out sooner than others, depending on the day and the time of year. But in general, the fruit tarts and the cannoli with one end dipped in chocolate sell out soonest most days. Ham and cheese croissant sandwiches are very popular, too. Turning to the bread racks, the plain loaves (San Francisco Sourdough; Country French) are in high demand, but they are also at the lower end of the price scale. Two of the breakfast breads seem to sell out quickly, too: English Muffin Bread, and another laden with dried fruit called Breakfast Bread.

The high-end bakery is in a curious position: customers are loyal. They value the full-bodied taste of the baked goods. And at least some of them are not price sensitive; they'd likely buy the same as always no matter how much the prices rise. So while the range of products spans the staple (daily bread, albeit premium ingredients and pricing) to the luxury (diverse pastries), somewhat similar breads and sweets also sell in convenience stores, big box retailers, and grocery stores. In other words, what the premium bakery sells is not so much high-quality ingredients as the care, handmade process, and smaller scale compared to factory bakers. So the loyal customers are in a relationship or community experience. They know their purchases sustain the model of high-quality baking traditions and the people busy behind the counter in the process of making more. 

Deep-fried tubers hit all the right notes: hot, crisp, fatty, and salty in the same mouthful

side order of french fries with the chicken sandwich (1/2025)

In the feudal years of Japan it was a luxury reserved for people of certain status in the public pecking order to eat foods deep-fried in pools of heated oil: tempura (a batter and method taught by the 1500s Portuguese visiting Japan) and later other forms like Kara-age (chunks of chicken battered and plunged into boiling hot oil) and Age-dashi Tofu and abura-age (again, deep-fried). But in 2025 USA there is deep-fried food everywhere you turn; so much so that it is ordinary (not for special occasions like 1800s Japan).

When french fried potatoes seems dull or routine, some will opt for more creative forms like sweet potatoes that are cooked in the fryer. Or the slender fries from Russet Burbank potatoes may be prepared in unexpected shapes: chunky (cottage fries), with skin on (rustic), in lumps (American fries), or shoestring (thinnest of the long strips).

For people who only enjoy the deep-fried tubers once a month or so, due to dietary, availability, financial, or philosophical reasons, there is something particularly satisfying about facing off with a portion of fries recently out of the fryer and salted neither too much or too little. Thinking about the mouth experience of those freshly served fries there are several dimensions of the eating experience that intersect in that sensation of bite and chew.

First is the color and texture and temperature: tactile senses are engaged to begin with. Then there is the taste of salt and the sensation of heat radiating from the fries newly out of the oil. Upon biting the slender fries down to chewable size there is the crunch (ancestral delight in crunching on bugs?) and the contrast of crisp exterior versus soft interior. Finally, there is the sensation of the oil emanating from the cooked surface of the fries, tickling the primitive part of the brain, eager for fatty foods.

Taken all together, fresh fries combine so many dimensions of flavor that the result is particularly satsifying. And then some people will gild the lily by introducing various condiments to the fresh portions: mayonnaise (made famous by the Belgians), traditional tomato ketchup or one of the many variations, shredded cheese and gravy (made famous in Quebec: poutine). Thank the New World (Andean civilizations) for cultivating the hundreds of varieties of potato. But thank, also, the many local adaptations of the humble spud to deep fry in many ways; indeed, not only deep fried but in the myriad other forms it can be eaten, too.