Memory full

When I was a boy I used to memorize much more than I do today. Now when almost anything can be found online there seems little need to memorize. A more useful skill is knowing how to search.

My earliest memories of memorizing are connected with church and giving what was once known as "two and a half minute talks" in Primary. I'm not sure where the time frame of two and a half minutes came from, but I clearly remember memorizing remarks and repeating these over and over again to make sure I stayed within the allotted time. Later I memorized the Boy Scout Law and the Articles of Faith (which I still repeat at night when I am having trouble sleeping).

Later memorizing was associated with school work. For spelling bees I memorized the correct spelling of thousands of words, many very obscure. (One of the things I hate most about aging is losing confidence in knowing how to spell. My journal is laced with words that have little question marks beside them, indicating my uncertainty about the spelling. Hmm, I think I need to invent a pen with a spell-check feature!) And being skilled at memorizing turned out to be a critical skill in test taking. The education process in my day rewarded memorization and short-term retention for taking tests far more than critical thinking or effective problem solving. I owe my scholarship award in part to the ability to memorize prodigious amounts of information!

Learning foreign languages (Russian and Vietnamese) involved a great deal of memorization. I can still remember making the transition from memorization and translating to actually thinking in these languages. Once I became fluent, at times I had to translate back into English because my native tongue had become my second language! I memorized my patriarchal blessing, missionary discussions, and seminary scripture mastery scriptures.

Today I can remember little of what I once memorized. I struggle to recall a joke for more than a few minutes. I have always had an unusual memory for numbers and for years could recall the address and phone number of every place I lived. But I can no longer reliably do so. I have to look up the dates of family member birthdays. I do still remember the lyrics to some favorite songs. And for some reason, one particular poem is indelibly etched on my mind. It made a tremendous impression on me as a college freshman and somehow has stuck with me for nearly four decades.

A slender strand of sophistry,
All tenuous and tangly,
Soft and sweetly strangled me.

The only source I can find for this simple but powerful poem is Jennifer Sainsbury, “Worldly Knowledge,” New Era, Jun 1972, 51.

It is fun to remember some things; others are best left unremembered. One of the wisest things I ever read was a definition of life as "the process of exchanging time for memories." I wish I could remember where I read this ...