There is a line from a favorite movie that has always stuck in my mind. The movie is The Way written and directed by Emilio Esteves and starred in by his father, Martin Sheen. “The Way” follows Tom Avery, a California ophthalmologist who travels to France after learning his adult son Daniel died in a storm while walking the Camino de Santiago, the historic pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Rather than simply bringing his son’s body home, Tom impulsively decides to walk the Camino himself, carrying Daniel’s ashes and scattering them along the way. He’s a controlled, guarded man who initially wants to make the journey alone, but ends up joined by three fellow pilgrims: a jovial Dutchman looking to lose weight, a bitter Canadian trying to quit smoking, and an Irish writer struggling with writer’s block. Each carries their own emotional baggage, and their unlikely friendship forms the emotional core of the film. As they travel through the Spanish countryside, Tom gradually opens up, works through his grief, and comes to understand his son (and himself) in ways he couldn’t while Daniel was alive. The film is as much a meditation on grief, connection, and the pilgrimage experience as it is a road movie, and it’s often credited with boosting real-world interest in walking the Camino de Santiago. At Tom’s first meeting with the young Canadian woman, Sarah, she lays some heavy Canadian-American bullshit on him by accusing him of being like all American Baby Boomers (she calls him “Boomer”) who need to own one of every product offered up by Steve Jobs. Tom has no iPod (which she does) and no iPhone (but he does have some other off-brand cell phone). The movie was made in 2010 and is at the cusp of the transition from multiple Apple products like iPods and iPhones (the iPod peaked in 2008 and the iPhone was introduced in 2007). It was just as this movie came out that the iPhone smartphone era was beginning. With the introduction of the iPad later in 2010 and then the Apple Watch in 2014, the full integration mode of Apple was underway and Sarah’s comment was prescient in that we have all become Apple saturated and integrated.
In my business life throughout the 80’s, 90’s and even into the new Millennium, I tended to avoid Apple products because I was a devotee of Bill Gates and Microsoft and while I appreciated the Apple aesthetic and innovation, not to mention its ubiquitous spread through the education and design markets, for a finance professional it was simply too cumbersome to stray too far from Microsoft, even on the weekends. But that all changed just as I was starting to leave the corporate world and as the internet brought about the gradual shift from fetching emails to pushing emails to fully integrating emails, texts, photos, music, videos and gradually biofeedback. My PalmPilot and BlackBerry days are a vague and distant memory at this point. By the time the iPad came out, I had unsuccessfully tried several tablets (the tablet concept always resonated with me) and was blown away by the improved functionality of the iPad. I was onboard the Apple train enough to be an early adopter of the Apple Watch in 2014 as Apple shifted from the “i” configuration out of necessity (other brands had already landed on the “iWatch” moniker in several forms) and moved to the Apple This and Apple That approach to branding (think Apple Watch, ApplePay, AppleTV, AppleCard). But the first version of the Apple Watch lasted a week on my wrist until I found it a yawn and tried to give it away to my sons and then eventually some friend, all of whom were reluctant and unable to find any more value than I had. Charging another device every night seemed too much trouble and those neat multi-functional charging stands that now sit on our nightstands that handily charge up whatever you own were not available.
But Apple prevailed and the Apple Watch returned a few years later to my wrist to the point where I no longer wear any other watches, even in business settings. The thing is simply too damn valuable in its integration, convenience, ease of charging and, quite frankly, importance to my daily life. I don’t wear it overnight like some do, so my new Oura 5 biofeedback ring (matching matte black, thank you) handles my sleep tracking, but plenty of others wear their Apple Watches 24X7. I only occasionally answer calls on it, but when I do I am glad to have that extra capability. I like seeing my grandkids’ or Kim’s photos appear on the face randomly to remind me of what matters in life. And having a device that quietly keeps track of and notifying me of all the stuff entering my inbox in one form or another, is actually quite handy in a non-invasive way. In other words, I’m now an Apple Watch devotee just like I would not be without my iPhone or iPad (he says as he types away on its Bluetooth-connected keyboard). I now get notices from both AppleHealth and Oura when its time to stand up and stop writing for a moment on my iPad.
I have noticed that when traveling or even while here at home, the younger generations prefer their screen formats on their iPhones and iPads over larger TV screens for some or even all of their entertainment. Now, when I travel and am in a hotel room, its an even bet as to whether I will turn on the in-room big-screen TV or just watch something on my iPad…sometimes I don’t want to go through the hassle of putting my Netflix or Prime login on the hotel TV only to worry that I need to remove it when I leave or forever have future room guest wonder whether they can use Rich’s Netflix to watch BooBooKitty for free.
I recently dropped my iPhone in just the wrong way so that it smashed one of the three little camera lenses (what are the odds?). My Claude research told me that I could pay $200+ to get the Apple Store to fix it (big hassle) or $100 to have some local Billy Bob Repair Shop do it (that never seems to work well), or I could spend $7 on Prime and get a repair kit complete with three tools to do the job professionally (What?!). Turns out, that $7 option is not as easy as it sounds, so I rationalized quickly that T-Mobile owed me an upgrade from my IPhone 15 Pro-Max to an iPhone 17 Pro-Max. My the way, I will never figure out what the new phone actually costs me and I’m sure that is an intentional marketing strategy by T-Mobile and Apple, but life is too short, right? (This is where you say “Right, Rich” just to make me feel less stupid and spendthrifty). What never ceases to amaze me is how seamlessly one can now switch iPhones, have them instantly update themselves from the iCloud (Oops…how did that “i” slip through), reconnect to the iPad and Apple Watch, and only require me to resign in to the various apps as I open them…oh, but the Passkey (an open industry standard and NOT an Apple product) is still operative.
The bottom line is that my life and I are all Appled up and I am thrilled as a Baby Boomer to be part of that…take that, Sarah the Canadian!