Places create moments

Anytime, anywhere. Now that everything is becoming digital, we can do whatever we need to do, wherever we are. We can book our next holiday while waiting for the bus. Check our bank account’s balance in line at the supermarket. Watch Netflix in the train. Write a blogpost in bed.

While this is of course very convenient, I also believe something gets lots when everything is digital. When the meaning of a moment gets completely detached from the place.

Because sometimes moments need places. In fact, sometimes the place creates the moment. The place becomes the reason why we do something. Something we wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. I’ll give you an example.

I’m terrible at cleaning my car. I never think about it and when I do, I don’t feel like it. But this weekend it really needed to be done. Those two spots of bird poo were the trigger.

With my car parked next to my house, I could have washed it at home, by using the hose.

But instead I collected all the euro coins I could find and went to one of those self-service car wash stations. Where you insert a coin and you can use the sprayer gun or broom and wash your car for a couple of minutes. A few coins later, when the car was all nice and clean again, I decided to stick around. Because right next to the wash station was a vacuum cleaner — again coin operated.

If I’m here, I might as well clean the interior too, I thought. I was in a cleaning mood and I had extra coins. I would have checked my tire pressure too, were it not for the fact that I had already done that the week before.

Could I have vacuumed my car at home? Sure. I could have taken out an extension cord and used our regular vacuum cleaner. But I didn’t even think about it when I was at home. Even if I did, I may not have felt like doing it.

The car washing place really helped me. It created not just a moment, it also created a mood.

So next time there’s bird poo on my car, I’m going back to the car wash place. Just not the one that works with coins. Who still uses coins? I’ll go to the other washing station, where I found out I can pay contactless with my card. Some things really are better when they’re digital.