As I walk towards my office, I see an ad that makes me sick (as a matter of fact, I see many, but this one points to something other that the consumerism-sexism-excess that we are so dangerously getting used to).

The ad says “Turn now into memories”. How wrong is that?!!

Now is now. Now has to be now. Now should be now. Now has to remain now.

When you strive to “turn now into memories”, you are missing out on the real now. Like those parents that take the camcorder to their kids matches, record everything… and then realize they did not watch nor enjoy the game because they were worrying about “capturing everything” through a little tiny viewer or screen. Like those lovers who incessantly snap pictures of their loved one, stopping at the surface, missing on the real beauty which is within, in every gesture, look, attitude, word… or like those “a snapshot for Facebook” fake smiles of groups of (generally adolescent girls, but not always) people at a bar, bunching together, showing off thick layers of make-up and long rows of teeth gritting rather than smiling.

[You don`t have to read Adorno, Lacan, Danto, Munro, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Ortega y Gasset, Santayana, Schiller, Schopenhauer, Margolis, Kant, Hume, Heidegger, Hegel, and the rest to be able to be critical about the gaze. I know you get the point]

There is value, and need, in storing, in being able to review, and particularly in being able to share. But let`s not turn that into the whole point.

Live. Now.

Enjoy. Now.

It is always NOW.