So, I whined to Doni the other day, “What happens if I run out of stuff about which to write?” She answered something to the effect of, “If you’re still alive, you’re making new material!”
Oh! Well, there’s a bit of information to chew on for a while. As a result of that little exchange, I set out to look at life through the prism of, “Is that something I could write about?”
And, I will admit, occasionally that does happen. But what happens a lot more frequently is that I am somewhere, and something clicks in my brain and I think, “Now, that would be a good writing subject.”
So far, so good? Sure . . . until I get to someplace to write it down and can’t remember what it was, or forget about it all together until a day or two later. Then it becomes, “Hmm, what was it that I thought would make such an interesting article?”
To be honest, I’m an unorganized being with a hint of ADHD. The bottom line of that (self) diagnosis is that I can’t remember to stay on task. That means I remembered to look through that prism for about 10 minutes . . . then returned to my oblivious romp through my daily life.
In reflection (I do take time to do that on occasion) I think that it is better to live life in the moment and forget the analysis of those moments. I really believe that in most instances, it is difficult to place a value on one’s experiences without the benefit of hindsight. I also know that makes me myopic in regard to the future, but heaven knows I have 20/20 when it comes to hindsight.
The problem here being that my hindsight glasses don’t always work or frequently only work after months’ or years’ distance. And the truth is, I have several pair of hindsight glasses. The ones for memories of my childhood and youth are crystal clear, and have a “kind to myself filter” on them. The closer I get to the present, the fuzzier the focus seems to become and the better chance of my being more self-deprecating..
I’d really be worried about this whole state of the memory affair, but as I converse with members of my peer group, I find that most of them have exactly the same kind of hindsight filters on their hindsight glasses. At least I am in good and plentiful company.
Here’s another fact: Not only may it happen that two people were at the same event and remember them absolutely differently, but WHAT events they may remember may not be at all the same. Some memories I have of things that happened when I was 3, 4 and 5 years old, neither of my brothers remember at all, even though the memories involve them. They were both in high school at the time.
Oh, maybe that explains it.
When puberty hits, the brains go out the window except for thoughts of the opposite sex. You know, “Will he think this top is cute?” or, “Will she think this haircut is cool?” or, “Where’d she get THOSE shoes? They are so cute. I bet all the boys notice her before me!”
So, what’s important to a 3 or 4-year-old female brain is not in any way related to what would be important to a 15- or 16-year-old boy’s brain. Well, that explains a lot!
One of the other aspects of this train of thought is that TODAY I’d better be making some good material about which to ruminate. After all, my hindsight glasses are going to work just fine on today’s events 10 years down the road.
You can relate. Right?
Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes … she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.
