Z is for Zoom

Our village is on Google Street view. Not the entire village, but the main lane into it.

I found it out by accident one day, while checking something on google maps and I was a bit shocked at first. Of course, progress cannot be stopped, and our village isn’t that remote at all, but I just didn’t like the idea that anyone could virtually walk around the lanes where I always walked.

I zoomed in.

You could see my daughter and her friend playing on their bikes at the corner of the lane, faces blurred out. Villager S’s field. Our house from a distance.  I virtually walked on, just for fun, to see who else had been captured. Villager C in front of my neighbour’s house with his donkey. That made me smile,  that donkey had made it on google street view.

Little snapshots of the village, just enough to see the contours, but nothing more. You can zoom in all you like on street view and it will look a little bit as if you’re  there…but it lacks the details.

Some people say it’s the bigger picture that is important, but I’m not so sure.

I prefer experiencing things close up. It’s often where the really interesting stories hide, in the details.

The rumble of Enraged Enrique’s ox cart, the hay which has been left on the lane by Villager J, the see through skin of Villager P’s ancient mother, the colour of freshly made chorizo hanging in the smoking shed.

And so much more.