Recently, I was travelling by train, and I was amazed. Amazed by the people around me, amazed by myself.

Where are you, when you’re travelling? Usually, on your way from somewhere to somewhere else (or vice versa). In the meantime, are you nowhere? Or are you still where you came from, or already there where you’re going to?

Here and now

It strikes me that few people seem to be where they are. They’re still were they were, or already where they will be. But they’re not, as it’s called, here and now.

In Marten Toonder’s “Heer Bommel en het nieuwe denken”, the beach guardian says: “Some are longing for yore, others are waiting for later. There’s no present.”
That’s a bit stronger.

My amazement was stirred up by people staring at their mobile devices. Their communication boxes, keeping them in touch with home. What a pity, I thought - these people aren’t here, they’re there. Disregarding the beauty of here. This place, where usually they’re not, but where they’re now. They are missing the chance to be inspired by new impressions. To experience something completely new.

The blame game

Next, I started to feel guilty. Because I was one of them? No, not this time. I felt guilty because I was one of the enablers, and stimulators, of this technology. As a software developer, and as an evangelist of everything Apple is doing.

What a pity: whenever people arrive by plane in another country, they immediately reach for their phones to announce they have arrived. Which means: they immediately start being somewhere else. If it’s home they’re calling, it’ll bring them back home. Probably not the purpose of the trip they just made.
My fault?

What a pity: children on their bikes, using their phone to chat with their friends. Friends they’ll probably be seeing soon, or who they just left. Therefore, they’ll miss every possible experience being on the road.
My fault?

What a pity: train travellers busy apping home, while they’re travelling through the most beautiful landscapes.
My fault?

What a missed opportunities.
All my fault?
No.

What else is new?

After all, is modern technology really to blame for all this? When I looked around a bit more, in the train, I noticed something else. Some people where reading a paper, rather than using their phone. Just as much, they were not “here and now”. Maybe reading a paper is less addictive than using a phone, but the readers were missing as much from their environment as the phone users.

Also, some people were reading a book. Even more than the others, they were in another world. A book can easily drag you into its story, completely away from where you are.

In other words: nothing new was going on.
Perhaps the cause of all the distractions and addictions was more related to this: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” [Blaise Pascal]

Guilty after all

Now here’s the fun part: I’m writing this very article while travelling by train, once more. The sun is shining, the world looks nice, but I’m staring at my screen. Which is nice as well. Because, for me to be creative, there’s no place like the train. No distractions by everything else I need to do. Concentration.

Sometimes, I buy a one-day pass for the train, for that reason only. To be able to work.

So, it’s not very black-and-white. Maybe those people phoning home are also benefitting from their trip. Allowing them to get some rest and to think or speak about things they usually don’t have the time or peace for. Allowing them to bring some order to their thoughts. To finish their unfinished business.
Before they are where they will be.

And yet…

Despite the perspective above, the purpose of this article is to stimulate you and me to stand still, to focus on where we are.
Not to be somewhere or still be occupied with the past.
Not to be somewhere else or already be occupied with the future.
To be here and now.

Because, to quote Steve Jobs: “The journey is the reward”.