The Mind

I was on the bottom bunk and with the bunkbeds pushed up tight to the wall I smashed myself as close as I could into the corner formed by the wall and my bed. I have always loved sleeping in tight spaces and have never been claustrophobic. Next to my head was my small radio playing the hits on WLS in Chicago. I would fall asleep listening to music and wake up singing the song that was currently playing. Even today I find songs running through my mind that I learned way back when. We have all seen those advertisements for CD’s that you are to play while you sleep to quit smoking or lose weight or even learn another language. After you cut through all the hype and marketing you find that there is some truth in all that stuff.

Now I understand that my mind has a “bent” towards music and memorizing songs but listening to music all night while I slept only enhanced that. I can still sing for you most of the popular songs of the 60’s and 70, and even many of them into the 80’s. I still remember the solo parts that I had for musicals 30 years ago in high school; I even remember the parts of the people I didn’t play because I heard them so many times in practices and performances. My wife gets upset with me when we go to Broadway shows because I sing all the songs with the people on stage. When I would buy LP’s I would memorize them and then put them away.

So why is it that I cannot find my car keys or my cell phone? Why is it that, by the time my wife finishes her second paragraph of explanation I have forgotten the first paragraph? Why is it I can meet a person, have a good conversation with them, shake hands and then promptly forget their names … after I have met them for the third time! Why?
I think at the fall, when Adam and Eve blew it for all of us, God took that perfect mind he had created and rewired it a little. Not a lot, just a little. Kind of like a practical joker who will rewire switched in a person’s home so that when you flip a light switch the TV turns on, or press your TV remote and find your blender spinning out of control. Everything still works but you just have some annoying and humorous cross-wiring to deal with. At least that is my excuse when I am talking to someone and try to introduce my wife of 26 years and find I can’t remember her name.

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