How many times have you heard something billed as unforgettable? How many times have you forgotten that something? I consider it false advertising, as in the case of E‘s promotion of the Eric and Jessie Game On’s “unforgettable” season finale. Not only will I personally find it forgettable, because I don’t follow that particular program, I am quite certain even those who do will have forgotten it within a fairly short period of time.
Maybe it’s a sign of my advanced age, as I realize I’ve forgotten more details of my life than I remember. My children’s childhoods? One big blur. I know I raised them, survived the experience, lived it. But so many of the details are gone. Every vacation we took has melded into one big road trip. Every one of my son’s baseball games from tee ball to senior year in high school is like one game to me. Yet my son and my husband can recall details from a particular Little League game. My most vivid period of those baseball years was the catcher on the opposing team falling on my son and breaking his arm.
I did this to my mother: “Don’t you remember?” and I’d fill in the blank. She’d look at me and say, “Are you sure I was there?” Whereupon I would quote her chapter and verse of the incident and the conversation at the time. Now I’m doing it to my kids. They can’t believe I don’t remember just as I didn’t when my mother couldn’t. Trust me. It’s gone.
My dad claimed he suffered from CSR. Can’t Remember Stuff. I offered my theory that the older you get the more you have to remember and your brain is only so big. So something must be jettisoned to make room for something new.
If you want to know how much of your life you’ve forgotten start writing your autobiography.
At the same time I realize I’ve forgotten many details of my life, it seems what I don’t forget are the bad memories. The mistakes I made. The foolish choices. The embarrassing moments. They creep up to haunt me when I least expect it, whirling around my brain when my brain and I both know there’s nothing we can do about them now.
We don’t learn a lot from the happy times, although of course, I have some happy memories. I think. Maybe the reason why I seem to remember every bad thing that ever happened to me is because those are the ones that taught me the most valuable life lessons. Maybe that’s what makes them unforgettable.
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Escape into a romance novel on your next #unforgettable #road trip.
