Friday, March 5, 2010

Apologies

I'm sorry, but the following contains a word that I kind of despise. Maybe nobody else minds it, which is fine and totally acceptable, but regardless I'll apologize, if even just to myself.
Anyway.
Do you ever have totally random* memories surface for no apparent reason? You'll just be minding your own business, walking into work, disinterestedly regarding some construction or traffic, and then all of the sudden you find yourself thinking, on some level, about something very specific and utterly random?
Dave Eggers gave this really relatable, for lack of better word, description of his mind in one of his books... I can't remember which but I'd guess You Shall Know Our Velocity! was it. He (the speaker in the book) said he thought of the inside of his mind as an office of sorts with several workers that bring up files (memories) and work tirelessly to keep things running and organized. My view of my own mind has always been something similar, though not identical, to that. And in this case, it would be like business is going along as usual (the correct files are where they need to be; relevant ones on my desk, others accessible if necessary, etc), but then a completely unexpected file shows up on the desk and suddenly you're thinking of carnival night in elementary school.
That was today's, anyway. Yesterday I was suddenly, inexplicably thinking of the time a friend and I went out one evening in Nazareth (the Nazareth), and after exploring were totally lost. Long story short (it's a story for the books, I think) we wound up back at our hostel, but only after much Hebrew/English confusion and with only the help of some very gracious taxi drivers.
Anyway. This is all totally irrelevant. It's Friday night and I have some sleep on which to immediately catch up. I just thought I'd write myself to sleep. In a public setting. Sorry. This led nowhere. I'm in the middle of two books I don't particularly like so this seemed like a better idea.

*This is the word I hate. Its overuse has made me so hesitant to want to find place for it in speech or writing or anywhere.

1 comment:

Rachelle Hamilton said...

I know exactly what you are talking about and the same has happened to me. Inexplicable flashbacks flood my brain from time to time. It kind of sends me into a whirlwind to try and figure out why. Radio Lab has kind of been consuming my mind while I work lately because there are so many episodes to catch up on and they are all an hour long each. This pertains to this post of yours though and thought you might like it. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08

Though they have the articles typed out and everything, I suggest listening to the podcast attached as well at some point.