Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

One Robe One Bowl

There are too many choices in this world.
Now with the internet
information is as easy as saying,
“let me go online.”
Ideas pop into my head
and instantly I run to my computer
and “google” them.
Want to know what someone paid for their house?
Go to the Patriot Properties site and type in their last name.
Want to know where a yoga studio is in Nashville?
Type in yoga – Nashville and let yourself go crazy.
Want to find an ex-lover?
Type in their name and you’ll find out more information than you want to know.
I don’t like it.
I have too many thoughts in my head already.
I don’t need anymore to satisfy.
Now I can spend hours eavesdropping on a million different lives
other than my own by going to Myspace.com.
Ninety-nine percent of the time
I come to the same conclusion:
I don’t care about any of them.
It’s sensory overload.
Booking and re-booking airfares.
Ding!
Writing attorneys and hearing back on email.
Communicating with perfect strangers
back and forth,
like it were all perfectly normal.
No one knows what anyone sounds like
or looks like.
No one even cares.
I could be a three hundred pound elephant,
unless you “googled” me and found photos
to learn otherwise.
It’s too distracting.
We all know too much,
and it’s too much of the wrong stuff.
I liked it better when you had to actually
go
to the library to look something up.
You’d plan your day around it.
Maybe go get a cup of tea and a cookie
and stop to browse.
Now everything is too available
and too instant.
I think all these choices are making life harder.
I can have Sushi, Italian, Greek, Korean,
Indian or Chinese for lunch.
Or I can cook at home
which brings up an entirely new set of choices.
I don’t like it.
It makes me crazy.
I’d rather live like the monks.
One robe,
one bowl,
and I eat whatever is put in front of me.