The “Monday lunchtime trip to the pool” conversation between my co-worker and I is usually about what we did over the weekend. Sounds a little grade-school when you say it like that, but it’s usually interesting. This time, my co-worker said that he had gone to a folk music concert and was surprised at how much he enjoyed it. Not enough to go out and buy folk albums, but enjoyable live.<\/p>\n
It got me thinking about watching baseball. On TV, well, I’d almost rather watch golf – or watch paint dry – but in person, a baseball game can be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
What is it about the recorded version of these things – folk music and baseball – that detracted so much from the live version?<\/p>\n
My theory is that the live versions allow us to be our own editors, instead of relying on someone else to filter the event and distill what they think is important.<\/p>\n
When there’s a pause in a baseball game on TV, it gets filled with a commercial. When there’s a pause in an in-person game, there are people to watch and mascots to mock. There’s the 7th inning physical stretch and “beer heeeeeeeeere”. In the pause, there are things other than baseball – but maybe not any less engaging.<\/p>\n
A live folk show has atmosphere and the sense of a unique moment. A recording – even a “live” recording – misses something special about the people around us and how we perceive \u00a0them. \u00a0There’s something in being present that adds to the experience.<\/p>\n
From this, it would seem that a recording would always pale before a live event – but if the fault is in the editing then the right editor could improve on reality.<\/p>\n
I went to a photography show this past weekend and the exhibit had photos of places I had almost surely driven past, but disregarded.<\/p>\n
The photographer had captured something else – and sense of cheer in some cases, but mostly bleakness. Something I would have missed with my own filters applied as I drove past these places in the “live” view. \u00a0Being present in the real world didn’t automatically make me a better editor.<\/p>\n
Every moment of our waking lives our brains are furiously editing out massive amounts of information from our senses – things that our internal editor decides we don’t need to remember or even consciously think about.<\/p>\n
So, maybe the key to getting more out of our lives and our experiences is to try and be better editors and be more aware of our filters.<\/p>\n
It seemed a little deeper and more profound earlier today, but there’s still maybe something useful here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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