I have been suffering from a cold for the past few weeks. Is it a virus, or a bacterial
infection?
I was invited to a hockey game by a friend who’s a financial
adviser, and as we drove to the Staples Center,
the man explained to me how bonds work, and how their value fluctuates with
interest rates. Or is it inflation?
“Do those paragraphs
fit together?”
Indeed they do, blue-highlighted, gender-unspecified “Italics
Person.” And now, this:
“They sing of Yancey
Derringer
On every danger trail
On riverboat, in manor
house
And now and then in
jail.
They say that Yancey
Derringer had ruffles at his wrists
Brocade and silver
buckles
And iron in his fists.”
“Okay, now, I’m really
confused.”
Me too. But in an
entirely different direction.
The preceding assembled factoids land on opposite sides –
the first two on one side, the third example on the other – of the Earl
Pomerantz unilaterally uncrossable “Retention Line.”
How many times during interludes of bronchial discomfort has
a friend generously distinguished on my behalf a virus from a bacterial
infection and I still cannot for the life of me remember the difference?
How many times over the twenty-plus years that I have known
him has my friend/slash/financial adviser patiently explained to me how bonds
work and I am still unable to recall if the determining factor is interest
rates or inflation?
And yet:
“Ringo, Johnny Ringo,
His fears were never
shown
The fastest gun in all
the West
The quickest ever
known.”
(An equally obscure second
example, to avoid boredom through repetition.)
The answer is easy, you say.
“You are interested in westerns so you remember their theme
songs. The other stuff does not interest you, leaving you
unmotivated to assimilate the information.
Oh, really? It’s that
simple?
I respectfully – though without scientific verification
beyond my own Guinea Piggal participation – beg to differ.
A GENEROUS FRIEND: “Would you like me to explain the difference
between a virus and a bacterial infection?”
MY
FRIEND/SLASH/FINANCIAL ADVISER: “Do
you want me to tell you (again) how bonds work?”
That is not the way it happened. This
is:
EARLO: “Can you explain to me the difference between
a virus and a bacterial infection?”
EARLO: “Tell me (again) how bonds work?”
Both of those conversations were initiated by me. Out of disinterest? Of course not! I sincerely wanted to know. Why?
Because of, respectively, an ongoing medical condition, and a
substantial investment in bonds. This
was important and meaningful information.
And yet, it went into my brain and passed immediately right
through.
Every single time.
I am interested. I
listen. But it does not seem to
stick.
Ever.
On the other hand, certain seemingly meaningless information
that went into my brain appears to
remain archived in there forever.
Like,
The father of a cabin-mate at Camp Ogama in the early 1960’s
named Robbie Krangle was the owner of the Cheerio
Yoyo and Bo-lo Bat Company.
Why would I remember that?
I was going to
write “Why do I choose to remember that?” But therein lies my message.
What I seem to remember – and, by extension, me not being
some kind of biological anomaly, what people
seem to remember – does not appear to be a choice,
the product of neither preference, nor interest nor intention.
It is not that I don’t want
to retain something. Over the years,
I have attended four separate classes in “Philosophy” at UCLA Extension. And I do not
remember any of it. I recall, with enjoyment in fact, the ambient
philosophical music, but not the tiniest sliver of the content. And believe me, I was really trying!
Unofficial Conclusion: People’s proclivities for retention are
surprisingly various. What one person’s
brain holds on to, another person’s immediately forgets.
Is that truly possible?
Two people of equal intelligence, or even unequal intelligence – one’s
brain can internalize one category of information and the other’s brain, as hard as they try and as interested as they may
be, cannot?
Hm. So who then is
“The Smart One”?
The person who can rattle off the entire Periodic Table of
Elements?
Or the person who can sing:
“He cleaned up the
country, the old Wild West country
He made law and order
prevail.
And none can deny it,
the legend of Wyatt
Forever will live on
the trail.”
My vote’s with the
latter.
But I may possibly be prejudiced.
“The Smart One”, it turns out, based on the category in
question,
May be everyone.
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Note: I forgot that I promised yesterday I would do a followup today. Instead I wrote something completely different instead. Did I say "instead" twice in that sentence? Uh-oh, I may be losing it. As promised however - but this time I mean it, I will follow up on yesterday's post. Yesterday, it was "The Anointed Ones." Tomorrow, or perhaps another day in the future if I forget tomorrow again, why the Anointed Ones can't leave. Explained substantially by the fact that if they left, they would not be Anointed Ones anymore, but there is a little more to it than that, though I am not at the moment entirely certain what that is.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Note: I forgot that I promised yesterday I would do a followup today. Instead I wrote something completely different instead. Did I say "instead" twice in that sentence? Uh-oh, I may be losing it. As promised however - but this time I mean it, I will follow up on yesterday's post. Yesterday, it was "The Anointed Ones." Tomorrow, or perhaps another day in the future if I forget tomorrow again, why the Anointed Ones can't leave. Explained substantially by the fact that if they left, they would not be Anointed Ones anymore, but there is a little more to it than that, though I am not at the moment entirely certain what that is.
3 comments:
There is an alternative possibility: that the people you have chosen to explain to you the difference between bacteria and viruses, and inflation and interest rates (both of which are part of my mental landscape, as it happens, whereas attempts to explain football, baseball, or Westerns to me will fail, and they will fail specifically because I am *not* interested in any of them, but then I won't ask...) may not be good teachers with the gift of presenting these concepts in such a way that they stick to the walls of your mind without falling through.
I think you should conduct a controlled experiment by selecting new explainers.
wg
One way to combine finances and football is to simply say, "Pete Carroll's stock has hit bottom".
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