Rewind a couple of weeks ago, I was incredibly lucky enough to be enjoying an evening with Sir Ian McKellen. While there was a section of his performance that went a little over my head (I’m not really that much of a Shakespeare buff) something he did say really stuck me about the concept of now. Although he was talking about how amazing and rewarding the theatre is, how it’s all about right here, right now in the moment compared to film which is such a delayed experience for both the viewer and performer, it really struck a cord with me. For so long we have been encourage to live in the moment, embrace the now – especially in the digital age where people take a picture of their food before eating it, watch concerts through their phone as they record it and document their experiences before the actually experience anything. We have all done it, sometimes you just see or experience something that sparks so much joy in your being that you can’t help but want to share that with other people. I’m of that lucky generation that remembers what it was like to holiday without phones, without Instagram, without filters, without instant gratifications or double taps. And the older I get the more I want to hark back to that. Yes it’s great to travel, see new spaces and document it but recently on a post-holiday blues getaway by the seaside, I realised I just wanted to experience there and now – a moment where I wanted be in it that I didn’t even bother to share it, I didn’t want to spend my evening sifting through pictures to show people how amazing that day had been when I could be actually enjoying the moment. Don’t get me wrong though, I still capture those moments but I’m not rushing back to the hotel to be glued to a laptop editing shots when being in the now just feels so much more enticing than being in the future regretting it.
Knit 3.1 Phillip Lim, trousers Marks and Spencers, sunglasses Emon Eyewear
