Forget Something?

According to a recent poll of 2000 adults conducted for the Post-It Brand of 3M, the average person forgets four things a day. 

"Only four? You're kidding!" you say. (Perhaps you and I are above average in something after all.)

No, seriously... 4. And the top ten we're most likely to forget? 

1. What we went into a room for
2. Our keys
3. An item on our grocery list
4. Someone's name
5. Where we put our pen
6. Taking meat out of the freezer
7. Responding to an email
8. Posting something
9. What we were looking for on line
10. Where we parked the car

So, how'd you do? Oh. Well, could be worse, you know, like...where you work or...that you work. Etc.) 

Again, seriously this time! Forgetting things is frustrating and may occasionally feel life-threatening but, in the grand scheme of things, not so much. When you really stop and think about it, what is surprising is the number of things we do remember each day!

More importantly, there's a helpful distinction to be made between what is vitally important that we remember and what is not. I would argue that the list above falls into the category of "not." What is? Consider e. e. cummings' poem "i carry your heart with me."


i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

To love and let ourselves be loved. That's vital. The rest of the time, let's keep laughing.