Phil Silvers and spelling ...

 

Okay… so… this morning I was spending some time on my usual morning treat -- an acrostic puzzle -- and the first prompt was “Comic creation of Phil Silvers: 2 wds.”.  Immediately the words Sgt. Bilko crashed to the forefront of my mind.  Now why I can remember that and not how to spell the “official” color of my Jeep Wrangler (Mojito) is beyond me. And that is just one thing of many that I cannot remember.

Now the thing is - and I often bring this up when talking to other Boomers when it seems applicable…  I read a long article about this forgetfulness issue.  I reassure you (and me) that this phenomenon has nothing to do with neurological damage or disease, so don’t bother to look up things like Dementia and Alzheimer’s …  at least not right this minute.  The occurrence described in the first paragraph is called benign forgetfulness.  Have I written about this before?  I forget benignly.  Anyway – it is a normal thing and may be a teeny bit age related, but certainly nothing to be concerned about.  There is normal forgetfulness and not normal forgetfulness.

There are those who believe, myself included, that sometimes our brains are just simply on overload.  We live in a fast-changing world and there is a lot coming at us and that doesn’t just mean electronically.  If you doubt this – just picture yourself standing in your kitchen trying to get everything ready for dinner with a whole bunch of family or group of friends standing around taking, laughing and engaging with you while you are trying to time the potatoes so that they get done at the same time as the meat.  Then to complicate things even further – add in that you are using two ovens, a range, a microwave and an air-fryer that no one seems to know how to use except your grandkids – so you put them in charge of at least that much.  Oh – don’t forget there may also be a crock pot involved as well. It’s an exhausting juggling act to even think about, let alone do. It is hard to keep every single thing right at the tip of your tongue and sometimes impossible to sort out all the conversations going on at once. And… that is just one scenario. I am thinking that you could add to the list in fine fashion.  I mean – just think about making holidays special and all that entails.  I mean -- that preparation takes months. 

I don’t know about you, but I am thinking that rather than worrying about forgetting whether or not the door is locked, that we might be better off thinking about all the things we did remember to do.  I do so love a good list with everything checked off neatly. (I do remember that I have written about making lists before.) Now if I could remember where I put my favorite pencil… and my list making paper… I would be all set. Priorities....

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….