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London Called. Taking Pictures Stole His Joy

How Selfies do the same today

Shefali O'Hara
3 min readJun 26, 2022
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash

Once upon a time two friends and I went to London. The year was 1990.

We quickly realized we did not share the same traveling style, so we separated. Brad went off on his own, while Josh and I stayed together. We met up a few days later to see Les Miserables.

During intermission, we chatted and discovered we’d all been to Kew Gardens.

But our experience had been very different.

When Josh and I went to Kew Gardens, we were there for several hours. We toured a couple of the pavilions and reflected on the flowers, but we also spent a relaxing time sitting on the lawn and enjoying the serenity. We did take a few pictures but most of our time was spent actually enjoying the gardens. We left refreshed and happy.

Brad spent an hour at Kew Gardens and rushed through five pavilions. He took several rolls of film.

Josh joked that he should have joined a Japanese tour group. Brad gave a snarky laugh. I asked him what he’d enjoyed most about the gardens. He couldn’t really say. I guess he’d have to go home and look at his pictures to figure it out.

I don’t think that Brad experienced the same joy that Josh and I did.

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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