Check Your Phone

[George Bowman]

My first glimpse of Thailand’s Songkran celebration was in ’99 at the local temple in my wife’s village outside of Phitsanulok. The monks chanted and blessed the villagers who were sitting on the floor in designated family sections. It was scorching hot and seemingly utter chaos but yet peaceful.

 

By 2018 our Thai family had experienced both deaths and births but still sat in the same floor space in the temple. Times change.

 

This year, phones were everywhere. From the monks checking messages, toddlers being handed a phone to teenagers playing a game. Selfies were popular as the monks were  chanting on stage. Even many of the old and wrinkled rice farmers have now mastered tapping on phone screens.

 

The blistering heat and controlled chaos remained…