I was out driving in my car for most of today, listening to Carole King’s classic
album Tapestry
on the stereo. I’d forgotten just how good this album is and why it was considered
such a musical milestone in its time. In fact, I’d forgotten I’d even had the
album at all until it came up in conversation a few weeks ago. Mind you, this
is not uncommon for me. On at least two occasions, I’ve actually bought a CD
only to discover I already have a copy of it at home. In my defence, I do have
a reasonably large, quite eclectic music collection so months and even years
can pass before I get around to listening to some songs again, especially if
I’m stuck on a particular genre.

Yes, yes, I know if I had an iPod I could always
have my entire music collection with me, but it took me a decade to make the
transition from 12" vinyl album cover-art to boring CD cases so the little
beige box holds no attraction for me yet. Anyway, a person can never have too
many copies of Stairway
to Heaven, can they?

In general, my memory is pretty poor, although I do seem to be able to store
away large quantities of what some people consider is useless information. Did
you know elephants
can’t jump? Or that no English words in common-use rhyme with either purple
or orange? Surprisingly, this information seems to be of little use in everyday
life, although I’m set if I ever need to challenge an elephant to a game of
basketball or suddenly develop a desire to frustrate poets. However, I’ve learnt
to live with my poor memory (or if at times I’ve found it unbearable, I’ve forgotten
all about it). And, of course, there’s potential good in everything. Here’s
some advantages of forgetfulness…

• you can make lists like this longer, because by the time you get to the
  end, you’ve forgotten the first item and can repeat it
• you can save on books and magazines (re-reading a book six months later
  is a completely new experience)
• friends don’t hate you if you see a movie before them (you can’t spoil the
  ending for them, because you’ve forgotten it)
• you can holiday in the same place (such as Tasmania) each year and it never
  gets boring
• you are a natural for careers typically associated with absent-mindedness
  such as professors or politicians
• you meet lots of new people (well, you can’t remember having met them before)
• friends can trust you to keep a secret (you’ll forget they even told you)
• you can make lists like this longer, because by the time you get to the
  end, you’ve forgotten the first item and can repeat it

Now I’m sure there were a couple more I was going to add to the list but …um,
I seem to have misplaced them somewhere.

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