I was walking in the Presidio of San Francisco, just south of Crissy Field near dusk, when I saw a cluster of people in the distance. The smaller members of the group, apparently children, were moving around quickly, seemingly excited at whatever it was that had, was, or was going to occur shortly. As I got a little closer, I saw that one of these smaller individuals was handed something by one of the larger ones, who had in turn moved away to join another larger member. The individual that was handed the object also moved away, in the opposite direction, creating a distance of about nine or ten feet.
As I approached closer still, I realized that this smaller one was preparing to take a picture of the two others, who were apparently its' parents, and it dawned on me that they were using the child as a kind of selfie stick.
Although I don't recall in years or times past thinking that one individual taking a picture of others as being unusual, in this light, location and time it occurred to me in a powerful way that this kid was more of a selfie stick for its' parents than was their child. I don't know why, but that is how it seemed.
As I got close enough to see them I noticed that they appeared to be Americans of Indian heritage (the country, not the indigenous people), or genetically from that part of the world, anyway. Passing them, the child, who I could see at this point was a boy, called out, "maybe it's a garbage can". I inferred that he was referring to an object that he saw in the distance, and was trying, like me, to understand something that seemed new or different to him in this particular environment.
Maybe it was that object, perhaps a garbage can, that had caused what I had perceived as his excited wonder when I first saw him in the dusk from afar; the disorienting freedom that can occur when things appear familiar, strange and fantastic all at once.
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