At what point should someone be concerned with their forgetfulness?
- Thread starter her209
- Start date
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GodlessAstronomer
Lifer
- Oct 27, 2007
- 17,009
- 5
- 0
yhelothar
Lifer
- Dec 11, 2002
- 18,409
- 39
- 91
When you think you're 19 when you're 49 because you haven't remembered a single thing since
Looking at the grey-haired man before me, I had an impulse for which I have never forgiven
myself?it was, or would have been, the height of cruelty had there been any possibility of Jimmie?s
remembering it.
?Here,? I said, and thrust a mirror toward him. ?Look in the mirror and tell me what you see. Is that a
nineteen-year-old looking out from the mirror??
He suddenly turned ashen and gripped the sides of the chair. ?Jesus Christ,? he whispered. ?Christ,
what?s going on? What?s happened to me? Is this a nightmare? Am I crazy? Is this a joke??? and he
became frantic, panicked.
?It?s okay, Jimmie,? I said soothingly. ?It?s just a mistake. Nothing to worry about. Hey!? I took him
to the window. ?Isn?t this a lovely spring day. See the kids there playing baseball?? He regained his color
and started to smile, and I stole away, taking the hateful mirror with me.
Two minutes later I re-entered the room. Jimmie was still standing by the window, gazing with
pleasure at the kids playing baseball below. He wheeled around as I opened the door, and his face
assumed a cheery expression.
Jimmie?s scientific knowledge was that of a bright high school graduate with a penchant for
mathematics and science. He was superb at arithmetical (and also algebraic) calculations, but only if
they could be done with lightning speed. If there were many steps, too much time, involved, he would
forget where he was, and even the question. He knew the elements, compared them, and drew the
periodic table?but omitted the transuranic elements.
?Is that complete?? I asked when he?d finished.
?It?s complete and up-to-date, sir, as far as I know.?
?You wouldn?t know any elements beyond uranium??
?You kidding? There?s ninety-two elements, and uranium?s the last.?
I paused and flipped through a National Geographic on the table. ?Tell me the planets,? I said, ?and
something about them.? Unhesitatingly, confidently, he gave me the planets?their names, their
discovery, their distance from the sun, their estimated mass, character, and gravity.
?What is this?? I asked, showing him a photo in the magazine I was holding.
?It?s the moon,? he replied.
?No, it?s not,? I answered. ?It?s a picture of the earth taken from the moon.?
?Doc, you?re kidding! Someone would?ve had to get a camera up there!?
?Naturally.?
?Hell! You?re joking?how the hell would you do that??
Unless he was a consummate actor, a fraud simulating an astonishment he did not feel, this was an
utterly convincing demonstration that he was still in the past. His words, his feelings, his innocent
wonder, his struggle to make sense of what he saw, were precisely those of an intelligent young man in
the forties faced with the future, with what had not yet happened, and what was scarcely imaginable.
?This more than anything else,? I wrote in my notes, ?persuades me that his cut-off around 1945 is
genuine ... What I showed him, and told him, produced the authentic amazement which it would have
done in an intelligent young man of the pre-Sputnik era.?
I found another photo in the magazine and pushed it over to him.
?That?s an aircraft carrier,? he said. ?Real ultramodern design. I never saw one quite like that.?
?What?s it called?? I asked.
He glanced down, looked baffled, and said, ?The Nimitzl?
?Something the matter??
?The hell there is!? he replied hotly. ?I know ?em all by name, and I don?t know a Nimitz ... Of course
there?s an Admiral Nimitz, but I never heard they named a carrier after him.?
Angrily he threw the magazine down.
He was becoming fatigued, and somewhat irritable and anxious, under the continuing pressure of
anomaly and contradiction, and their fearful implications, to which he could not be entirely oblivious. I
had already, unthinkingly, pushed him into panic, and felt it was time to end our session. We wandered
over to the window again, and looked down at the sunlit baseball diamond; as he looked his face
relaxed, he forgot the Nimitz, the satellite photo, the other horrors and hints, and became absorbed in the
game below. Then, as a savory smell drifted up from the dining room, he smacked his lips, said
?Lunch!?, smiled, and took his leave.
Looking at the grey-haired man before me, I had an impulse for which I have never forgiven
myself?it was, or would have been, the height of cruelty had there been any possibility of Jimmie?s
remembering it.
?Here,? I said, and thrust a mirror toward him. ?Look in the mirror and tell me what you see. Is that a
nineteen-year-old looking out from the mirror??
He suddenly turned ashen and gripped the sides of the chair. ?Jesus Christ,? he whispered. ?Christ,
what?s going on? What?s happened to me? Is this a nightmare? Am I crazy? Is this a joke??? and he
became frantic, panicked.
?It?s okay, Jimmie,? I said soothingly. ?It?s just a mistake. Nothing to worry about. Hey!? I took him
to the window. ?Isn?t this a lovely spring day. See the kids there playing baseball?? He regained his color
and started to smile, and I stole away, taking the hateful mirror with me.
Two minutes later I re-entered the room. Jimmie was still standing by the window, gazing with
pleasure at the kids playing baseball below. He wheeled around as I opened the door, and his face
assumed a cheery expression.
Jimmie?s scientific knowledge was that of a bright high school graduate with a penchant for
mathematics and science. He was superb at arithmetical (and also algebraic) calculations, but only if
they could be done with lightning speed. If there were many steps, too much time, involved, he would
forget where he was, and even the question. He knew the elements, compared them, and drew the
periodic table?but omitted the transuranic elements.
?Is that complete?? I asked when he?d finished.
?It?s complete and up-to-date, sir, as far as I know.?
?You wouldn?t know any elements beyond uranium??
?You kidding? There?s ninety-two elements, and uranium?s the last.?
I paused and flipped through a National Geographic on the table. ?Tell me the planets,? I said, ?and
something about them.? Unhesitatingly, confidently, he gave me the planets?their names, their
discovery, their distance from the sun, their estimated mass, character, and gravity.
?What is this?? I asked, showing him a photo in the magazine I was holding.
?It?s the moon,? he replied.
?No, it?s not,? I answered. ?It?s a picture of the earth taken from the moon.?
?Doc, you?re kidding! Someone would?ve had to get a camera up there!?
?Naturally.?
?Hell! You?re joking?how the hell would you do that??
Unless he was a consummate actor, a fraud simulating an astonishment he did not feel, this was an
utterly convincing demonstration that he was still in the past. His words, his feelings, his innocent
wonder, his struggle to make sense of what he saw, were precisely those of an intelligent young man in
the forties faced with the future, with what had not yet happened, and what was scarcely imaginable.
?This more than anything else,? I wrote in my notes, ?persuades me that his cut-off around 1945 is
genuine ... What I showed him, and told him, produced the authentic amazement which it would have
done in an intelligent young man of the pre-Sputnik era.?
I found another photo in the magazine and pushed it over to him.
?That?s an aircraft carrier,? he said. ?Real ultramodern design. I never saw one quite like that.?
?What?s it called?? I asked.
He glanced down, looked baffled, and said, ?The Nimitzl?
?Something the matter??
?The hell there is!? he replied hotly. ?I know ?em all by name, and I don?t know a Nimitz ... Of course
there?s an Admiral Nimitz, but I never heard they named a carrier after him.?
Angrily he threw the magazine down.
He was becoming fatigued, and somewhat irritable and anxious, under the continuing pressure of
anomaly and contradiction, and their fearful implications, to which he could not be entirely oblivious. I
had already, unthinkingly, pushed him into panic, and felt it was time to end our session. We wandered
over to the window again, and looked down at the sunlit baseball diamond; as he looked his face
relaxed, he forgot the Nimitz, the satellite photo, the other horrors and hints, and became absorbed in the
game below. Then, as a savory smell drifted up from the dining room, he smacked his lips, said
?Lunch!?, smiled, and took his leave.
TurtleCrusher
Lifer
- Apr 20, 2008
- 10,067
- 990
- 126
I have never been good with birthdays. I think I could guess my mom's birthday within a few months, and her age within five years or so. Only reason I remember my sister's birthday is because it is two days after Christmas. I sometimes get her age wrong by a year though.
I'm doing better with my wife and son's.
I'm doing better with my wife and son's.
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
eplebnista
Lifer
- Dec 3, 2001
- 24,123
- 36
- 91
I once had a friend who was into a hippie style attitude. He would say to me, "all of God's creatures live in the moment, they are not burdened with memories that restrain them from enjoying life to its fullest."
He forgot to pay his child support and his ex hauled his ass into court and garnished his wages.
He forgot to pay his child support and his ex hauled his ass into court and garnished his wages.
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