Names

I have discovered an unsettling aspect of my aging process. There seems to be some disconnect between my brain and, well, my brain. I can't seem to remember names nearly as well as I did even a year ago, and certainly not as well as five years ago.
This is a huge problem for someone in sales and someone who routinely teaches classes and leads groups in a community of faith.

At first I thought it was just a little bit of information overload. You know, working with an old 486DX, long before the Pentium drives sort of thing. I simply had too much data accumulated over the years and no way to delete and reset. Of course there for a while I intentionally forgetting names. People who had annoyed or harmed me in some way. It was sort of my version of forgive and forget...more forget than forgive, but you know what I mean. I've come to the conclusion that it simply that my brain has decided this is trivial information and is just refusing to store it away.

It was with some comfort that I found a common traveler with the same problem. She had attended my little group Sunday morning and several new faces had shown up..I forget their names. But there was a couple there that I know had attended my groups before, the faces were familiar, but the names were not coming. So I asked my friend who these people were and watched with amazement her struggle with the names. To her credit, she hit the wife's name right off the bat. Or at least I think she did, I was so clueless that she could have made up the name and I would have stood there, nodding agreement, and in the center of my brain the little old guy who looks up all this stuff is just standing there, peeking through the eye sockets and shrugging his shoulders. So we called over one of the guys who is supposed to keep all this stuff together and asked him and he worked through it and decided that the husband's name was the name we had assigned to the son. Again, he could have made it up because the little old guy in my head had decided to sit on a dusty storage box until we decided who these people were.

I think I might get a badge and wear it on my shirt, " Tell me your name again. Can't remember it, no reflection on you, I'm sure you are charming and significant, but my brain has decided to stop accepting input, like names, dates, and data." Kind've a long badge, but it will cut down on my trying to think up clever ways to make them say their names.

There is also the possibility that the older I get the closer the circle will be drawn that I will forget people I know and love will be the recipients of this lecture. I can imagine waking up one morning and spooned in with my bride and wake up in alarm. Who is this woman?!? What if my wife finds out? Oh wait, she looks really familiar..Brenda? no, that's not it, Babs? Can't be..Beverly!!Yeah! Love of my life. Wow, that was close, I need to write this down. My humor has frequently saved me in awkward situations. I suspect anything humorous at that moment will not have the desired effect.

So to my friend at church yesterday, you passed half the test. I flunked miserably. I can't wait to get the stage in my life where I can call people by the wrong name and they will just laugh and think how dear it is that the old guy just can't remember anyone's name. At this point they just get huffy.

So Godspeed out there, the journey is long, but filled with a growing number of people who shall remain nameless...
Don