Lately I think I've been suffering from an I/O overload. I used to look around at people on the train who didn't read, who just sat in their seats staring straight ahead, and I used to think, "What's wrong with them? How can they just sit there?" On the train, I needed input, I needed something coming straight into my brain in the form of a book or a magazine, or a conversation with another person. In my house, the stereo was on, I'd be on the computer or watching t.v. or reading a book. In in in it would all come. And out out out it would all go again, whisked away in the form of icqs and email, phone conversations and dinner dates.
My day consists of a series of inputs and outputs: reading, surfing, talking, emailing, icqing, thinking, inventing, dreaming; pulling from my inside and putting it out there, and grabbing what's out there and bringing it in. And lately it feels like I've maxed out my processing ability. I just sit on the train now and stare straight ahead. If I open my book, I realize minutes later that I haven't read a page. By the time I climb into bed at night, my super-saturated brain can do no more than command my eyes to close. I wonder if this is a product of our times? Or of my lifestyle? Or maybe just a lack of sleep?