I love to read. More than that, I have to read. Stuck with neither book nor newspaper, I’ll read the small print on labels or the large print on advertisements. When there’s nothing left, I’ll find words in words–two letter words, paper and pencil not allowed. Give me a word like restaurant and I’ll stay happy until rest, test, nest, stare, rare, utter, ratter, arrest, attune, etc. have been discovered. This is all well and good and you’d think my brain would be appropriately exercised through the years to qualify as up to par in my dotage. But no. I do almost everything at least twice: I unhook a cup for my tea, only to find a cup is already in position; I buy a tube of toothpaste and find four at home. Like that.
However, the main complaint I have about my brain is—- remembering what I read. Or rather not remembering. Most mornings I read the op-ed pieces in the Times but can’t tell you what they said an hour later. Scratch that–five minutes later. At night I read books or magazines. The following day–gone with the moon.
Moreover, thoughts enter my head and vanish like the bubbles I used to blow in my first childhood, about which I remember everything. Okay, not everything–but a lot. This would be great if anyone was interested in hearing about it. How strange none of my grandchildren has inquired. The only time I find any interest at all in my past is when I try to access a bank for my account or credit card on-line and a program demands to know the name of my mother at birth, my first dog, first school, or first best friend.
I should be grateful to have software care about my facts of life but lately after I type in the answer, it tells me I’m mistaken. What does it know that I don’t know and when did it know it? Have the details of my childhood been commandeered for the sake of national security?
Did I say Sondra, Yvonne or Linda was my first best friend? Oh, dear, I just remembered–her name was Beverly. You can tell my grandchildren, if ever they should ask, but don’t bother mentioning it to the banks because, obviously, they already know.
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