{"id":1729,"date":"2014-10-06T21:53:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T21:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2021-05-08T14:21:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T14:21:38","slug":"unlocking-neural-pathways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/unlocking-neural-pathways\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking Neural Pathways"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lock<\/a>A few months ago, when I moved, I purchased a new combination lock for my basement storage locker. I wrote down the three-number sequence on an index card and placed the card in the kitchen drawer where I keep carryout menus.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, as soon as I got this lock, I forgot the combination for the lock I use for my health club locker. It was as if I could only store one sequence of three numbers (1-40) at a time. I ended up buying a lock and key set for the gym and had to get used to working out with the key sliding around in my left shoe.<\/p>\n

I have been thinking about memory ever since.<\/p>\n

Why is it that some things stick in your head regardless of how often you try to access the information and other bits seem to evaporate? I still remember most of the 5-digit zip codes for the northern suburbs of Chicago because of a summer job I had working in a postal distribution center almost forty years ago. That I often can\u2019t remember where I left keys or my glasses (even when they\u2019re pushed up my forehead like a headband) confounds me.<\/p>\n

Being creatures often motivated by approval, it seems that our tendency to remember the name of a song or the admission price for an art museum is linked to having regular contact with someone who would be interested in that factoid.<\/p>\n

We like to equip ourselves with information we can share with our compadres. It feels good to be able to correctly recall which sluggers played for a single team over the span of their careers when hanging out with fantasy league friends, or be able to recount to a fellow film aficionado which Woody Allen movies featured Dianne Wiest.<\/p>\n

Memories are fickle though, how something in your known universe can be recalled at some times, but not at other times; how something that can\u2019t be recalled one day, emerges, seemingly unsought, weeks later.<\/p>\n

I am oddly happy when I can end a phone conversation with a tech or settle my dinner tab with a waitress by invoking the name they mentioned so casually at the beginning of our exchange. I can get despondent over not being able to name actors or politicians I grew up knowing, or the names of a good friend\u2019s children, or the street that has a little known entrance ramp to the expressway, or if that favorite Szechwan restaurant is closed on Mondays, or\u2026<\/p>\n

I know there are Sudoku puzzles and brain games and even dietary supplements for improving one\u2019s memory, which are all good, but, when it comes to memory, I feel it\u2019s important to check motives. Do we want to remember something because a slice of information is important to our survival or to the health of a relationship, or are we looking for a measuring stick to declare superior knowledge or to berate ourselves for a shortcoming?<\/p>\n

Supposedly, by the time we reach fifty, our ability to recall recently processed information diminishes. Maybe more valuable than writing down a locker combination on an index card, I need to remember to be kinder to myself when my once stellar ability to recall such things has changed.<\/p>\n

I often laugh when I feel my locker key sliding around under my thick white socks while I am on the treadmill at the gym. I can remember to smile when a regular companion forgets what kind of wine I like to order at a favorite bistro. It\u2019s not that important. Feeling more compassion for ourselves and for others is what matters.<\/p>\n

Forgiving ourselves for forgetting and acknowledging ourselves for remembering what\u2019s truly important<\/em> is no small thing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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