Today when folks leave the house for work, school, travel, sport or shopping they rarely notice those around them on the street, in the bus, train, boat, plane or whatever because they take their family and friends along with them on their devices texting or on social media. Since then, the the world's population has doubled and the planet has warmed 4 degrees celcius. Digital passtimes today remind me of Pinochio's amusement park - a diversion of attention while the world passes by. Things were different when this photo of myself and my dog was taken in 1961. JFK was President, his brother Bobby and Dr. Martin Luther King were still alive. The photo was taken in an age of innocence.
Our home was in East San Diego County, off Fuerte Drive just East of Mt. Helix in La Mesa, Ca. From our back garden we could see the Mexican border off in the foothills. At night we could see the migrant worker campfires in the distant foothills, and we knew that somehow they'd show up early each morning ready for work at the local farms and golf courses getting them ready for the day's business.
On weekends we could drive down across the border into Tijuana for some fun. Tijuana was quite small then with only about 70,000 people. The city was not well run and it often had to borrow the San Diego Fire Department when things got too hot. Today Tijuana is a metropolis of 1.7 million and growing.
Since this picture was taken, I have endured nine other US Presidents and have watched my country become a battleground of weaponized selfishness, greed, and self absorbed narcissism. Young people who all want to be over-night super-stars and billionaires. I seem to be the only person on the train or Metro or even on the sidewalk who is not spending 80% of my waking day checking my social status and staring at a device instead of the world right in front of me, or even tossing a slobbery tennis ball to a pet who loves me because I am as foolish as he is.
©2017:timnewlin timtim.com