Searching Past Lives

Have you ever done any cyber peeking? You know, when you put into Google the name of an old and forgotten friend from your childhood to see what happened to him or her? This computer technology is amazing in that regard, that we can type in a few letters to bring up a piece of the past in a matter of seconds. We can secretly do it too, because no one wants to be recognized as searching for them..It's like stalking in cyber space. But then.....maybe they are spying on you too. But the good thing is that neither person will have any idea that they were googled. Everyone we ever met and dealt with, if we can remember their name and spell it correctly, is just a few keystrokes away, and we all must be tempted to try to find out what happened to them. All one need do is look at the number of social network sites available, including ones that attempt to reunite old grade school or high school friends.
And if we are curious to see just how that awful girl or boyfriend is doing we can google or use one of the other identity sites like Zoominfo.com (that one gives a business profile on people). Now before you think I am spying on you or anyone else, let me say I am not. I just thought bout this concept when I had to google a name for purely legitimate reasons.
It occurred to me how easy it is now to find people. In pre computer days we wondered what happened to someone, but dropped the wonder at that point, as it wasn't feasible to find them (In those days to find someone we would have needed to hire a detective, not typed a name in our computers). The speed and ease of the search has now made us all potential voyeurs. So much information about us is out there, so I guess we can't blame anyone for looking.
But why do some people need to satisfy our curiosity about that one time best friend or the guy who we always fought with in 6th grade? Maybe we just like the nostalgia. Perhaps thinking about those "old days" makes a person feel better today. Or maybe we want to see if a person is a failure or a success, whether the reality of their status today matches what we dreamed they would be when we new so many years ago. Or maybe we just have too much free time when on line and like to waste it that way.
Before I wrote about this subject I tried three names I remembered from middle and high school, but not a one brought up any information. I had trouble remembering names and wasn't sure about the spelling. perhaps it is best that I found nothing and stopped looking, for I think leaving the past only in the past is often the best policy for living life in the present.
How difficult is it being a monk? In Cambodia it's practically impossible. That's because all 40,000 Cambodian monks were issue a "watch but don't get excited order" for all world cup games viewed. That's right. The monks were permitted watch the games on TV but ordered to remain remain passive the whole time they view them- no cheering or betting on matches. "It is very difficult to ban them because new technology means the games can be aired live and seen everywhere. They must watch, but must be calm, " said the official orders to The Buddhist monks. " But if they make noise or cheer as they watch, " it said., "they will lose their monk hood."
Wow...its enough to make a monk chant in protest....but I guess that would be illegal too.