I've Forgotten What I've Written

I think I've come to a very important milestone in my daily, incessant blog writing.

The milestone is this, that I've forgotten what I've written. I was just looking at some headers from things I wrote at the beginning of the month, and I couldn't remember what they were till I looked. If I were to look back further, who knows, it could be anything, I wouldn't remember.

I know before in my life, I think I remembered everything I ever did. So I could look at something and remember what it was perfectly. There wasn't any question. But with quantity, that's what you get. Your mind can only hold a limited number of things in its reserve without more cues, so a title won't necessarily do it anymore.

When we discuss what the authors of the past wrote, we sometimes say it in present tense, like this: "Emerson says, 'Hi, this is Emerson, I'm about to write another one of my very great essays.'" Or a better quote than that. So we're discussing that quote in its context, the surrounding points, the overall theme, as though Emerson was totally centered and focused on it. But what if you brought Emerson here now and set all his books in front of him. He'd surely say, "I've written a lot of things, but it's been a long, long time ago. I'll have to review what it is before I make any comments."

The same thing could be said for anyone, painters, recording artists. "I recorded a lot of things back between 1912 and 1932. I don't remember everything, so I don't know what you're talking about."

I'm about to post this little article. How long will it take me to totally forget it?