"In a very short time,
people were not the same.
All of them were bent over
the small screen in their hand.
It was as if nothing else existed.
Then one day, something happened
that changed many people in the city.
Maybe forever."
In her retelling of this tale, Bette Midler introduces New York City, its inhabitants, and the arrival of the cell phone. As we can all attest, it made a huge difference in everyday lives.
"And most important, it was a camera, and you could
photograph anything and everything - especially
yourself. Everybody really liked that.
It wasn't long until everyone in the city had one."
With the arrival of the phone, people stopped paying attention to each other, and what was going on around them. One bird changed that! It was 2018. The community looked up from their phones when a mandarin duck landed in Central Park. Why such a response to its arrival? Well, the mandarin duck is native to East Asia. No one living in New York had seen one. As happens in the days of the cell phone, everyone wanted a chance to take its picture. The park filled with interested and intrigued birdwatchers.
One day a small child stood on a rock, and explained that she was not going to use a camera to 'see' the duck. She was going to look at it with her 'own two eyes'. When she put her phone down, so did the rest. They fell in love with the beautiful bird they were seeing with their own eyes. What a truly remarkable event. People began talking to each other about what they were seeing, and about other engaging topics. Their habits changed, and they liked it. When the duck disappeared, the people chose to continue with their new habits. They liked this new world they were seeing.
A combination of a well-told fable, stunning photographs and grayscale images of the people of New York at their various undertakings make for a most enjoyable read. Michiko Kakutani's end note adds further information about the 'duck' and its stay in New York. Facing that page, she provides a number of thumbnail images.
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