Tonto and the Lone Ranger...

Trying to move to the "lighter" side of things ... 

I find it oddly amusing that I easily remember the name of the Lone Ranger’s side kick, Tonto, but that I cannot at times remember where I put my wallet/reading glasses/keys.  Now some people in my age group and surrounds would find this to be concerning.  Not me.  I think of it in one of two ways…both normal and relatively harmless ... unless the item you are forgetting has an open flame.

First - when you find yourself standing in a room wondering what it is that you came to retrieve and have no idea what it was, don’t think you are losing it.  Obviously, you have crossed through/under an archway of some sort… maybe more than one.  There are existing studies that speculate on the inner workings of your brain when you do this.  I read about it – can’t remember where.

And second… there is such a thing as benign forgetfulness.  Now there are a lot of things written about this phenomenon, but I choose to ignore all the scary, age related ones and instead to focus on the mentions of stress, anxiety and just plain being overloaded with information and stimuli.  This is a fast-paced world in which we live – we are constantly bombarded with all sorts of information and, let’s face it, misinformation.  Even if we take current events off our minds ... just think of all the things we manage throughout even one single hour of every day… or even in one moment....Did you think about it?  Did you start to make a mental list?  Impressive, right?   

We are rather amazing, are we not?  Anyway – I say take the pressure off… so what if you forget a name once in a while, or take a couple extra seconds to think of the exact word you want… or even if you have concerns similar to the missing wallet/reading glasses/keys issue previously mentioned.  It happens to everyone.  I have even heard young people talk about it. Forget it.  We are just fine.  Go forth….