What Am I Looking For?

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Have you ever gone looking for something, only to realize when you get to the room, you have to stop and ask yourself, “What am I here for?”   The other day I was reading a book at my dining room table and wanted to underline and highlight a paragraph.  I got up and headed for our studio to get a straight-edge and a highlighter.  As I passed thru the kitchen, I happened to notice the clock on the stove read 9:43.  When I got to the studio, I had to stop and ask myself, “What am I here for?”  I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember what I had come to the studio for.  I had to return to the dining room to find out what I needed.  As soon as I saw the book on the table, I remembered what I needed.  Sound familiar?  This sort of thing seems to be happening to me and my wife more often these days.  

A friend of mine told me about this time when he went up stairs to get something, and by the time he got to the top of the stairs, he had forgotten what he was after.  He had to go back down the stairs to the room where he had been working, before he remembered what he needed.  Then he had to go back up the stairs to get what he had originally started for.  That caused him to have to make two roundtrips to finally get what he was after.  Sound familiar?  He tells me this sort of thing is happening to him and his wife more often these days too.

So, what is going on?  It seems like everyone I talk to these days (young or older) is having these same kinds of problems.  Then someone suggested that it is that we have so much more to think about these days that our minds are cluttered.  Someone else thought it was because we have stored so much ‘stuff’ in our brains that it takes time for our brains to sift thru all that ‘stuff’ to remember what we are looking for.  It’s my opinion that we get distracted with so much that’s going on around us, that we forget what it is we want to remember.

Take for instance my example mentioned above.  By looking at the clock on my stove, as I passed thru the kitchen, it might have caused me to think of something I was planning to do later that morning and wondering if I was going to have time to do that thing before lunch.  My brain starts analyzing that question, and I might remember I need a special tool to complete that task, and there goes my memory of what I was headed to the studio to get.  And of course, there may be any number of distractions like that before I get to the studio.  It seems like it might be a matter of concentration for me.  If I can only keep my mind on the task at hand and not let it be distracted by fleeting thoughts, sights, or sounds, I might be better off and remember the initial thing.  So, what do you think?  Do you have any thoughts or opinions on the subject?  Come on, everyone has an opinion. Right?

We won’t even talk about forgetting names and places.  That’s for another time and a whole nother blog.  Have a great day and remember what you are there for.  If I remembered all I wanted to say, then this is…

—– The End—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 64 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: #amblogging, Christian bloggers, Humor, Living in the here after, Memory issues