I dropped my cell into the cup holder and jumped into the great unknown – untethered, unplugged. Suddenly face to face with the human crossword puzzle of an American Mall. And without my phone (and not being too dramatic), it had a radically different feel – a 1970s vibe, just people with people, walking and shopping, crying, laughing, imploring and ignoring. My vision was vivid, crisp, felt wider, more open. I saw so much: the Asian grandmother behind her large extended family, slow and grim, waiting for a mistake, watching for a flaw; the Latino couple walking on air, hand in hand, her head resting on his shoulder, his face triumphant; the (very) old Persian man, cane slowly tapping the cement, gnarled hands, crippled arthritic toes – an old body, but also: sheer joy in his eyes, sparkling and young, soaking in the human energy and afternoon sun. I walked slowly, meditatively, my attention locked onto and (somehow) around the scene, literally immersed in the Here and Now, and wondered: where to go with this feeling; how to encounter all the detail in a world hurried and distracted, a culture dedicated to interruption, poisonous nuggets of fear, anger and anxiety; how to drop all that into the ‘side door’ and (re)enter this life?

– by MJB