We got into talking about cameras, and our friend Mathura had a good point. He used to be a photographer but gave that up in pursuit of organic farming and self-sustainable living (I wrote a bit more about that in a previous post). We agreed how nuts it is that nowadays everybody, including myself, is almost like obsessed with taking photos or video of anything even a little bit extraordinary.
He said, “You’re not living in the moment when you take that photo - you’re thinking that you’ll enjoy that particular moment in the future. Then in the future when you’re looking at those pictures, you’re living in the past, thinking about that time you were there. So in either case you’re not living in the moment. For God’s sake, live in the moment!”
(Here is a perfect example. We happened to be in Washington DC on July 4th, when they had huge fireworks on the National Mall, polluting the air for miles. I watched some of it, and of course, took a bunch of videos and photos, with which, I doubt, I'll ever do anything at all.)
If you think about it, satisfaction can only be experienced in the present. As soon as you think “Oh, I’m having a good time” - it’s gone, because the time you announced having as “good” has now moved to the past and now you’re having some other type of time. More precisely, you’re now having a time of reminiscing how good your time was half a second ago, and, in reality, you have lost the satisfaction you then had because you’re now lamenting for something you used to have in the past.
I feel tempted to dive into a spiral of more and more examples, details and elaboration on the subject but will resist - this is enough food for thought for me for the time being. Heehee.