Police helicopters are noisy.  At night when one seems to circle an area above or close to our home, the noise is intrusive – particularly in the middle of the night.  But I know they are doing something that helps keep me and my loved ones safer.

Out here on holiday, a couple with a drone are taking elaborate camera shots.  And I found myself immediately irritated.  More than the intrusive (and unnecessary) noise of a very large and enraged wasp – is the absence of knowing where the cute camera attached to the digital insect is pointing.

Sitting here on our balcony this morning … enjoying the quiet of the seafront before everything opens for another day … contemplating nothing much in particular … one very large and enraged wasp grew louder in volume.  Passing directly over the roof of our hotel it seemed to be taking a long (and loud) meander at roof height all the way along the seafront.

It is this increasing trend to digital immortality … putting me in front of the wonder behind me … making me the star of the picture … imprinting my features on all these shared wonders … that is my irritation!  And these “holiday drones” are becoming the “next level” in digital indulgence.

I am irritated by the need to cock my photographic face on every natural wonder I see.  And the use of drones to cock my face is digital indulgence over-riding all other digital indulgence.  The holiday drone is now the new phallic symbol of the selfie-submerged society.

“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

Has a relevance today – perhaps as much as it ever had.  Because the wonder all these selfies are focused on … repeated daily at the same time … ?

And this natural wonder doesn’t need me at all.

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