Some people talk about temporary memory loss as senior moments as if the brain is a lot slower as we age.
I like to think of it as our search engines are working at design capacity, but we keep stuffing in more information than our brain could ever handle.
Suppose you have a box of ten marbles. it is very easy to pick out a particular marble. What if you have a box of one hundred marbles? If they were all on the same level, you could still quickly pick out a particular marble.
Now what happens if you have a box of one thousand marbles? Most likely they will be piled in several layers. It will take you quite awhile to find a particular marble, especially if the marble is not in the top layer.
So, a senior forgetting something isn’t losing his or her marbles, he or she just has a lot more marbles to search through than younger people.
Right now, my head is full of working out the glitches from cutting the cord and using only wireless phone and internet.
I put two different amounts on a check to a handyman. When he called about the discrepancy, he said that he had two other checks with errors. This certainly doesn’t help his cash flow.
I wrote a new check (with the correct amounts), put it in an envelope, and put a stamp on the envelope.
I took it with me to the fitness center on Friday. I knew I had it in my hand when I got out of car. I went to the coffee shop and then to the fitness center.
A few minutes into using a stationery bike, I realized that I didn’t remember putting the check in a mailbox!!
Retrace my steps. Look around table I sat in. Ask cashiers if anybody turned in an envelope. I’m feeling very depressed. My day is ruined! All I do is worry about that check.
In the wee hours of the morning, I suddenly remembered passing a big sign thanking the many volunteers to the health center. I remember the sign being on my right as it would be if I went to the mailbox. It would have been on my left if I had been going directly to the coffee shop.
Probably I had other things on my mind as I mailed the check on auto-pilot.
I hadn’t lost my marbles; I just have too many to find just the right one when I need it.
