This morning I knew I wanted to go to that store that has an especially good selection of nuts. I knew the store and I have been there many times. But I couldn't remember clearly how to get there or what street leads to that store. I know I have tools and people who can direct me but I consider my mental difficulties to be indicative of aging and the problems one can have with an elderly head.
I am thankful for the paper and electronic and social tools for reminding myself of the location of my goal but I also want to take note of my difficulties in using my head to imagine the location. If I have even more difficulties using stored memories to remember, I will be disappointed and probably irritated with my brain cells but I won't be surprised. I think, like the wife of Stephen Mitchell, the woman called Byron Katie, I can take a somewhat relaxed view in observing difficulties I didn't used to have but that seem to be creeping up on me. It is actually an interesting process.
A similar experience comes to one of a pair of people who have been married partners and biological parents of the same children but who find that one of the pair remembers very few parts of a trip or other experience that the other partner describes in detail. Different experiences, thoughts and action, even different goals form a giant amount of information that is not the same as another person who went to the same places, was always in the presence of the partner but was looking in a different direction, has different thoughts, points of pride and of fear, not to mention different subconscious motivations to remember or forget.
