"Forgotten? No, we never do forget: We let the years go; wash them clean with tears, Leave them to bleach out in the open day, Or lock them careful by, like dead friends' clothes, Till we shall dare unfold them without pain,-- But we forget not, never can forget." (Dinah Maria Mulock, English author and poet, 1826-1887 )

A good Tuesday morning to you as we make our way through another work week here on this September 10, 2013. Yesterday morning I heard an in-depth report on BBC radio about how the memory part of our brain works. When folks jokingly say they misremembered something they actually hit upon a very common problem that does occur in our attempts to correctly recall almost anything, at least in terms of it being fully accurate in all of its precise details. This happens because our brain helps to take what happened, our memory of it, and it knows how to fill in any blanks based on a lot of factors including our prior experiences. Researchers staged an altercation and fight in front of unsuspecting bystanders. They then interviewed the potential eye witnesses. A number of them remembered a knife. There was no knife. Some saw blood. There was no blood. The researchers know these individuals saw exactly what happened just like everyone else but their knowledge banks supplied this additional but erroneous information. That's pretty scary when you think about it. It calls into question that old saying: If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. The good news is that I will likely not remember to remember to let this bother me.

I'm not so sure those who have photographic memory of the past are blessed. They may have all the facts straight but I'm not too interested in the shirt I was wearing on my first day in 5th Grade. And, I would be only honest to admit that I most likely know I've scrubbed some of my memories so they fit the narrative I enjoy. Scrubbing might be a little too severe, maybe just an airbrush touch up here and there. It does have something to do with the way in which we process experiences. When I was deep into genealogical research I would discuss with others some things that happened many years ago. My recollection was, for lack of a better way of representing it, light and pleasant. Theirs often was much darker and tended to emphasize the negatives. Maybe I was using the Mayberry RFD prism to look back and maybe they were allowing their difficulties in life to overlay their recollections. Whew! This remembering stuff has gotten me a little fatigued this morning, therefore, I will try to remember to get back to it at another time. As it pertains to those polished up memories, I still like my version better. Just so you know.

I read an article about a fellow in Brazil who had suffered a stroke. He recovered but for unexplained reasons he woke up and became obsessed with generosity. In other words, his entire personality had changed and he came back from the stroke driven to help others and give away whatever he could. That behavior was totally foreign to his profile before the stroke. A similar thing happened to Saul of Tarsus who later became named the Apostle Paul. He was on the road headed to capture, torture, and even condemn to death those who were Christ followers. However, as he journeyed he had a life changing experience when he met Jesus who called out to him from the heavens. He was blinded by the light but he recognized that God was calling him to change. You can read all about it in the New Testament, Acts Chapter 9. The rest as they say is not only history but it's the story of how the message of the Gospel became available to the world including our world. Let's hope we don't have to go through the ordeal suffered by the Brazilian man before we seek to reach out and be of service to others. Let's face it, learning to care more about others would be a good change for us all including yours truly. Amen.   ...More later.