No Memory for Names – Thoughts from November 15 and 16, 2022

November 15, 2022

I was listening to an episode of Sarah Silverman’s podcast with Patti and someone left a voicemail asking about a message she got from her child’s school nurse. The message informed her that her child’s weight was a health concern. The mom was super offended by the message and wanted to know what Sarah thought of it. Sarah, to my surprise, agreed with the mom that the message was completely inappropriate. So let me get this straight. You can’t point out to parents about a weight problem with their child? It’s amazing to what extent people separate themselves from reality. I don’t know if it offended the parents because they also have weight problems or they think the health expert was pointing out their own bad parenting. If the overweight shoe fits, you must admit that you or your child is wearing it.

I get what people are reacting to with weight problems. Most of the fitness crazes of the past treated overweight people as if they were diseased with the “fat” virus. Coaches and trainers everywhere treated overweight people with disdain. This is a far cry from a health expert pointing out that being overweight is a health problem. I have a weight problem right now. If a health professional told me my weight was a problem, I would see that as a wake-up call to change my life. It wouldn’t offend me and I wouldn’t pretend my weight is not a problem. America as a whole is overweight, but that doesn’t mean we should normalize being overweight. Because I’m not over 100 pounds overweight doesn’t mean I’m a healthy weight. I don’t accept the health problems others accept as being normal.

There’s been a rash of people signaling the wrong way recently and I have no idea why it’s happening. People will signal to the right and get in the left lane. I’ve seen it so much, I suspected someone was crossing the wires on people’s signals. I don’t even know if this is possible, but you don’t have to go far to extend beyond my knowledge of cars. It is definitely possible that I saw someone doing it once and started seeing it everywhere because I was looking for it. I’m used to seeing people not signaling, but signaling the wrong way is new.

Sometimes I forget I know something. What I mean by this is someone brings up a subject and I’m reminded that I know things about it. Until they bring up the subject, I don’t think about what I know about it. I can go years without thinking about something, and suddenly I remember all the things I know about it. Knowledge seems to be stored until we need it. My memory is not as useful for names and locations. I can forget the name of a character in a movie, but be able to tell you most of what the character did in the movie. If I sneak up on my memory, I can remember names. Trying to remember a specific name ensures it will remain hidden in my brain.

November 16, 2022

I am a first generation atheist. My parents were both believers, but not so much that they didn’t allow me to do my thing. I’m sure there was a time when I believed supernatural things were possible (like Santa Claus), but I have no memory of buying into it. Without kids, there’s no one I can pass my atheist wisdom down to. I think more and more people are considering themselves non-believers. All non-believers have dealt with their share of people treating them horribly for religious reasons. I do actually prefer the term “non-believer” to “atheist” because atheism gets confused as merely a non-belief in God. It actually just means you are non-religious. Stating what you don’t believe is unhelpful for describing what you are. There are plenty of atheists I disagree with when talking about non-religious subjects. Even if religion was no longer a thing, there would still be plenty of things to disagree with other people about.