Traveling and “pseudo-events”
Mark K September 3rd, 2008
Years ago, when I was attending college in southern California, we were exposed to all kinds of avant-garde concepts which we readily accepted and incorporated into our personal beliefs. I remember taking a humanities course - I don’t even remember the exact topic now - taught by a young, hip professor named Sherry Webber. She told us about a concept called the “pseudo-event”, which I have since learned was first proposed by Daniel Boorstin.
According to Wikipedia, a pseudo-event is “an event or activity that exists for the sole purpose of garnering media publicity and serves little to no other function in real life”. Examples of pseudo-events include a press-conference, advertisement and even sitting for a family portrait.
Armed with this information, I left for a summer trip to Europe minus my camera. I reasoned that if I had the camera with me, I would be so intent on recording pseudo-events that I would see everything through the viewfinder of my camera rather than experiencing the actual event. I would constantly be asking myself, “Is this a good photo opportunity?” “I can’t wait to show the people back home,” rather than being in the moment and appreciating what I had seen.
I remember a few years later when a British friend of our family visited us in the San Francisco Bay Area. He had heard about the giant redwoods just north of San Francisco and had asked me to take him for a visit to Muir Woods. When we got there, he promptly took out his camera and lay down on the ground on his back, clicking pictures of a redwood tree from that perspective. Then he got up and said, “Okay, we can go now.” We had been there for about five minutes.
Today I wish that I had some photos from that trip to Europe back in 1973 - the only ones I have were taken by my Italian relatives when I visited them. But at the same time, when I travel I sometimes find myself spending too much time with my nose buried in a guidebook or my eye glued to my digital camera.
These might be two totally unrelated topics, but when I try to sort out what approach I should take to traveling, I am reminded of some advice I was given right before my first child was born. The advice was this: Before your child is born, read every book about childbirth, babies and raising children that you can get your hands on - everything from the classics like Dr. Spock to the current favorite (Dr. T. Berry Brazelton in our case). Educate yourself until you are thoroughly familiar with all of the facts, theories, and philosophies.
Then, when your child is born, throw all the books away.
What this said to me was that as a parent, it’s important that you educate yourself and prepare yourself the best that you can, but when it’s “game day”, you need to think for yourself, use your intuition, and make the best decision for your child and your family. Like the so-called experts, you won’t be right all of the time, but that’s life.
What does that have to do with traveling? I’m traveling to Europe again next month and I think that I’ll adopt - let’s call it the T. Berry Brazelton approach to traveling. I’ve started studying and preparing myself by studying the language, reading the guidebooks, and reading books and watching movies that take place in France. I know where I’m staying and have helped plan the itinerary. I don’t know that I’ll go so far as to throw the books away, but although I plan to bring a camera, I want to avoid running around seeing sites with one eye focused on the guidebook, as if to say, “Now what is it I’m supposed to be seeing right now?”
I want to be fully present for the travel, even though I’ll have some “pseudo-events” to show friends when I return home.
