Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Remember when.


I was watching the news while eating my dinner last night -- generally a ticket to automatic indigestation -- and saw a piece on a Minnesota radio announcer who never forgets anything.

Seriously.

Doctors are studying his brain, because he has Rain Man recall of everything that he's ever seen, read, or studied. You name it. They'll ask him what was on the front cover of the newspaper on August 11, 1987 and he'll tell them, along with the day of the week the paper was published. He's even been on Jeopardy.

I was horrified. I mean, can you imagine it? Would you really WANT to remember absolutely everything that ever happened to you. And when you did, would that you should at least have the benefit of sentimentality to dull it a little? I mean, part of how we forgive the past is actually forgetting the details of it.

I'm off to Montreal on business this afternoon. Truthfully, I'd rather forget the last time I was in Montreal.

2 comments:

©km said...

As you probably know.. I remember more than most. Friends have said that I remember more of their lives than they do. While it's a blessing with most things academic, it can lead to relationship hell - when you're the only one who remembers certain things - mostly bad things. Like my own padded cell in my own private prison.
I love that you use airport codes.

JT said...

I, on the other hand, am very forgetful - not of important things like appointments, work commitments, phone numbers or passwords - more like actual experiences or conversations, the details (or entire plot lines) of what happened previously on a television series. I think that if I remembered all of the things that I forget, my brain would hurt. I've embraced my forgetfulness and have a hearty chuckle when friends start off a sentence to me using the phrase "remember when"...often, the answer is no.