Forgetting

Forgetting is something that most people dislike. It reminds them of growing old. It even reminds them of unpleasant things that can happen to them like Alzheimer's. Not a pleasant topic to consider by any stretch of the imagination.

Selecting this topic, I felt, was appropriate. I'm 92 years old and forgetting is a difficulty that has overtaken me. A number of readers who have commented on reading my articles are in the aging bracket too, even though not many at my level.

Forgetting is not a recent topic. Google will point out many famous authors who have studied this in the past and present, and who truly believe will be a condition of many people who are lucky enough to grow old.

One famous author that most readers will have heard a lot about is Mark Twain who said, "When I was younger, I could remember anything whether it had happened or not, but my faculties are decaying now and soon it will be so I can't remember those things that never happened." He was only 72 years old when he said that, and he still had his sense of humor.

Many, many authors have written on forgetting; and one of them, Lisa Snyder of the Indonesian island of Bali wrote, "Babies are born with no memory. They gather memories as they grow, they lose these memories so that they can be grown again in a void."

A book by David Shenks, The Forgetting, in which he drew a conclusion that forgetting is something beautiful that forces people to live in the perpetual "now."

I can't leave these comments about forgetting until I give you the poem written by the local poet, Bud Brand:

FORGETTING

The older I get

The more I forget,

Or at least

That is what people tell me,

But I am not sad

Because it's not bad

That I can't remember what befell me.

I'll wager that a number of readers will have had some difficulties with remembering. That is the reason so many of us keep shopping lists. Now where did I put mine?

Bernie Hughes, Ed.D, is a retired educator who resides in Superior. He can be reached at bernie3024@gmail.com .