I’m a strange duck.  Maybe we all are.  I often get caught in defining something as important, and then obsessing about having that thing.

For example, a sharp screen resolution on my TV.  I yearn to see the details of things, especially faces.  Last week I bought a Blu-ray player and a few discs.

One of my three favourite movies is Whale Rider, the story of a young Maori girl becoming a leader in her village.  I put the disc in the player last night and … Wow!  1080p clarity.  Faces.  The intricacies of carved wood.  And therefore my happiness.  I vote for better.  720p or 480p is definitely worse.

Or so says my mind. 

I make up stuff about good and bad.  I suppose you do too.  Things that I say are true. 

Back in Canada I used to own a great music video on DVD – Bruce Springsteen Live In Barcelona.  In an ecstasy of letting go, I gave it away.

Last week I bought it again.  My memory is that the screen resolution of the Bruce concert was poor – maybe 480p.  And then there was last night …

My new Blu-ray player can boost the sharpness of an old DVD, or so says the advertising.  I slipped Barcelona into the disc tray.  And there was Bruce and the E Street Band in 720p at least.  My mouth dropped open.  No, it wasn’t the quality of a Blu-ray disc … but it was better!

For the last three years, my only contact with the Springsteen DVD was a song from the concert that I found on YouTube – Badlands, which is one of my favourites.  The audience goes crazy … many of them jumping up and down, their hands high.

But last night I watched the flow of the concert: the fast songs, the slow ones, the bouncing people, the chanting people, the people lulled by ballads such as Empty Sky.

It was … better.  One song alone, without the context, is worse.

And so flows my life.  Most likely my betters and worses aren’t yours.  You have others.

So be it