Watersheds

Yup, Celtic, 1928 was the watershed moment for silent films. although I'm not sure what a watershed is. At first, I thought it was a flush toilet which certainly revolutionized both enginereing and hygiene. The unfounded rumor is that the flush toilet was invented by John Crapper which is why we say we're going to the "john" to take a "crap".

     The  John Crapper story is an example of a mythological, figurative watershed.

     So what is a literal watershed which we can turn into a figurative watershed when we understand what the literal meaning is so we can apply it to the figurative etc?

     According to my brilliant nephew Mick, who is an engineer, the term watershed comes from an area of land that drains water into a specific river or body of water just like if you are nuts enough to climb to the top of a mountain and dump your canteen in such a way that some of the the water falls on one side of the mountain and the rest falls on the other side it will come to pass that the water on one side although originating from the same canteen as the water on the other side will flow into one watershed where as the other one will flow into a different watershed and thus drain into entirely different rivers or lakes or creeks or whatever.

     (Maybe you're familiar with conversing with engineers who try to make things "simple' for us without realizing that their grasp of "simplicity" is much different than ours.)

     Figuratively, then, a watershed moment is an event such as a revolution or a court decision that changes the course of history.  Literally,talkies replace silent films. Walking replaces crawling. Let's hear it for walking and talking, where would we be without 'em? The whole thing is called progress except for the calamities,catastrophes,fiascos and frustrations that go hand in hand with discovery. Those are the woodshed moments rather than watershed moments.

    What's a woodshed?

    A woodehed is where our great grandfathers would take their kids to teach them a painful lesson in the hope of dicouraging them from making the same mistake over and over again. 

     The end of the square wheel for example was the begining of the round wheel although the square wheel is to this day figuratievly recreated in the minds of all of us who are "out of our depth."

    For the sake of discussion and definition here are four  cultural watershed moments from the past sixty years

    The release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album in 1967, which marked a major shift away from traditional songwriting and album production styles while turning rock and roll into a predominantly "white" art form which in turn inspired the reactionary rise of hip hop in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which not only changed the face of popular music, but also had a significant impact on fashion, language, and cultural norms. Ya feel me?

     The introduction of the iPhone in 2007, which revolutionized the way people use and interact with smartphones, and set the stage for a new era of mobile computing. It took me until 2021 to catch up with my phone so as in many instances when the world around us changes faster than we do some of us, particualrly those of us who are "out of it" miss the boat while ignoring both the writing and the elephant head on the proverbial wall  until we are nearly trampled by the inevitable stampede. It's awful hard to deny a stampede when you're being trampled by it as I have discovered several times in the course of my "life".

 The launch of the World Wide Web in 1991, which transformed the way people access and share information, and had far-reaching implications for everything from commerce to politics. This has led to me being constantly contradicted by little shits who immediately fact check everything that I say which might be a good thin after all. The web also led to wrtiting communities like ABC tales and publishing oppoetunities like KDP both of which I've used to create my two wonderful books Full Filler and Fill Fuller which you can buy right now on Amazon and which will change your life or at least alter the time you spend while reading them.
     The #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 as a response to widespread sexual harassment and assault in various industries, and sparked a larger conversation about power dynamics and gender equality leading to the downfall of Harvey Weinstein and the re-evaluation of the Hollywood Babylon and casting couches that shamefully prevailed in the film industry even before, during and after the watershed of sound.

    These watershed moments as momentous as they are do not compare to our own personal water shed moments when everything changed in our lives....births..deaths.....marriages...failures...triumphs and guess what? Another one is approaching even as we pause here to take a breath.

God only knows what's next.

Am I right, God?

Ya feel me?