Statue in Washington DC
Yesterday I heard a fascinating interview on The Diane Rehm Show with man named Joshua Foer, who wrote a book called Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. The interview was basically about improving your memory and what it's like to be a memory champion. Yes, there is such a thing. Anyway, while the whole bit was interesting, the interview took a poignant turn for me when Mr. Foer uttered this little gem:
I have to say if there's one takeaway that I had from this experience of training my memory, it's not memorizing shopping lists and decks of playing cards... It's that if you want to remember something, you've got to be the kind of person who remembers to remember. You know, you can be the kind of person who throws down your keys and doesn't pay any attention and you can do that with everything in your life. You know, you can move through and not pay attention and not be mindful. But if you are going to remember your life, you're going to have a memorable life, you've got to be there, you've got to be mindful. You've got to be paying attention.
Wow. Thank you for that great reminder. I'm determined to really be here (wherever that is) and to be mindful and to make my life one worth remembering. How inspiring.
If you get a chance, you should really listen to this interview - Foer also offers up a theory as to why we feel life speeds by us so quickly, the older we get. Everyone wants to know that, right?
I was going to ask you to summarize the rest of it for me, but then I figured I wouldn't remember it - golly, I'd better go read it! :)
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about remembering things yesterday. Thanks for the thought; I'm going to start paying more attention.
I listened to the first part of the interview (love the Diane Rehm show) but apparently I need to go finish it. Especially after that cliffhanger note you ended on.
ReplyDelete