Sundries sun·dry /ˈsəndrē/ noun plural noun: sundries various items not important enough to be mentioned individually. "a drugstore selling magazines, newspapers, and sundries"

I love my commute, driving in the darkness, listening to my audiobook. It’s relatively passive activity. True, I’m focusing on the road, driving and listening, but that’s it. It’s not active, not hands on,I'm  above the ground racing onward.  My mind occupied with someone else’s story. Sometimes I listen to music. By the time I get to school the sun is coming up and all the neighborhood roosters are crowing. It’s funny to me that it’s my favorite time of day. It made me think about AI and what it may eventually bring. AI can think for us, write for us, even work for us.  It can drive a car for you.  For how much longer will someone say their favorite part of the day is picking fruit? Sewing clothes? Cleaning the house, rocking a baby? Walking their dog, Riding a horse? Climbing in bed with someone they love? 

How important is it that so much of our lives is experienced in our minds? In our opinions? In being absorbed with video and audio, in being passive? Is my love of audiobooks part of a slippery slope?

I’m worried because I keep reminding myself when I step out into the morning air, or the heat of the afternoon, this is the real world. Does the real world notice what we are doing?