Relative Something

I sure enjoy poking fun at things. Maybe sometimes at the expense of appropriateness. For example, I have recently noticed the development of a pattern of forgetfulness that has led me to blurt out a series of comments about alzheimer’s that were meant to be humorous. What if it actually were a memory disease causing my problem? What if someone I was with at the time, had a family member so afflicted? Doesn’t seem like something to joke about.

One of the things that I have trouble keeping track of is, which topics I’ve written about and posted here in Relative Something. Have you ever noticed that you can pretty quickly recognize when you have read something before? Unfortunately, I can’t remember which of my stories I’ve already told here. Of course, the longer I do this blog thing, the higher the odds there will eventually be repetition.

I have lost enough things lately, uncharacteristically of me, that it appears to be a pattern. So what’s the natural reaction? I start unconsciously living up to my fears and losing track of more things. Each new item or issue quickly adds evidence to my expectation and soon I’m convinced it’s getting worse. It must be a disease, no?

Mention to someone that you find yourself losing things and they will immediately be able to share a similar number of ways they are experiencing the same thing. It’s not uncommon. Becoming fixated on it is a classic case of how we create the very situations we expect to see. We all probably lose track of things at a similar rate over time, yet if we put our focus on it, the rate can appear to be excessive.

So, I will dismiss any such pattern, until a time when it truly exceeds typical human foibles. How do I know when that is? Oh, never mind.

Actually, it should be easy to dismiss the pattern, because I will probably just forget that I was keeping track of how often I am losing things. Get it?

Like I said, it’s not that funny.