Experiencing Evolution
The magic of seeing the same performance twice in a day and playing Nintendo as a kid.
My wife is a part Pop Nation Canada—a wonderful community of singers and dancers.
They essentially perform adult glee, and their shows are simply outstanding.
I learned early on that when tickets come out for the four shows that they have over a weekend, I must buy tickets for at least two of them.
The shows usually take place on a Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, and Sunday night.
My wife and others who are part of the community have given me (and fellow fans) the advice to skip the first show, and try to get tickets for Saturday night (show three - most energy) or Sunday night (final show - most emotion).
This past season, I got tickets for Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. This meant I should have been seeing shows two and three.
Then there was a snowstorm. A big one.
This forced a schedule change and they had to move the Friday night show. This meant, I would now be seeing shows one and two, on the same day, just a few hours apart.
Show one was great... but show two was something else.
There was a level of cohesion and magic that emerged. Given that I had just seen the same show a few hours prior, with the exact same humans performing, I couldn’t even understand how show two was that much better.
The thing is, I needed to see show one in order to appreciate show two as much as I did.
**
A friend and I were talking about video games the other day.
We grew up in the 90’s, so the first system we both remember playing was a Nintendo—the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
At the time, this device felt like magic. The games we played on it were like nothing we experienced anywhere else. Despite this, we still knew it was a game because the graphics were quite cartoonish.
My friend now owns a PlayStation 5.
The graphics for games on PlayStation 5 feel just a few hairs below real life.
Sometimes when we’re together, we won’t even play a game, we’ll just observe the graphics in awe.
The thing is, we needed to play a Nintendo in order to appreciate a PlayStation 5 as much as we do.
**
When we experience the evolution of something, we appreciate it more.
Why?
I think it’s because it touches on a truth we all believe about ourselves.
We can evolve too.
