It'll Come To Me ...

I've noted of late an increasing tendency to forget.

I struggle to recall the names of actors, authors, artists, characters, the titles of books and movies, and so on.

Mind you, I've always had a poor memory for names of people. When I was a teacher I had to have a seating chart in front of me so I could remember my students' names. If I saw them out of their seats or in the hall, forget it. Sort of like Kingsfield in the The Paper Chase.

As a reporter, and as a teacher of literature and history, I used to have a great memory for historical and literary names. As an actor, I used to remember so many lines, and as a musician so many lyrics and tunes (though sometimes I'd have to be prompted with the tunes during practices).

But the forgetting has become more pronounced. 

Getting older. Hopefully not developing any sort of dementia or Alzheimer's.

I know with the body you need to keep exercising to keep up strength. The brain is a muscle, too, and can be strengthened by use.

So I'm thinking a good exercise would be memorizing texts.

I already have some prayers committed to memory. And I have "A Visit from St. Nicholas" memorized for use in some of my Santa gigs. But there are other prayers and literary pieces that would be good to memorize. Some I have even already partly memorized.

A few potential works to memorize come to mind.

The St. Joseph Prayer

The Beatitudes

The Gettysburg Address

Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

That's a good start.

Now if I could only remember to carry copies of them with me!

 

Pax et bonum