Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Jenny Was Sweet

News is blue, Has its Own Way to Get to You...

I got a call. From Jenny.

We'd gone to High School together. We were friends, but not close. We hung around with the same group of people. I'm sure we talked from time to time.

We hadn't spoken in years. Many, many years.

And she contacted me. Out of the blue.

We had a long talk. She'd lived overseas. She had lots of stories to tell. She told me about her work -- which was interesting. Something I may have thought years earlier I could have done, but now have zero interest in.

It was a great conversation. We vowed to keep in touch.




Jenny told me that she'd always remembered something I said to her.

And she told me what the thing was.

I didn't remember it -- although I recognized it as the type of thing I would have said.

"I thought about what you told me every day for ten years," she said. "It inspired me and helped me make myself who I am."

Which I'm happy about.

Except.

I don't remember saying it. I'm sure I did -- but it didn't register for me.

Even though it clearly registered for her.




But that's not the worst of it.

I knew Jenny's name. I could almost remember what she was like.

But I couldn't picture her. I knew the associations. Knew the connections. Knew the people.

But I couldn't remember which one she was.

That part of the puzzle is a blank for me.

Like the words I said.

And I don't feel good about this.

Because it makes me wonder. What else I've forgotten.

And what else was vital to others and barely registered for me.

1 comment:

whiteray said...

I must have missed this one, and I'm glad I caught up with it. One of the drawbacks - I almost wrote "curses," but it's not quite that bad - of having an extremely good memory is recalling things that were significant to me that the other folks who were there do not recall. It happens to me frequently: I will remember something from long ago, and someone else says (more or less), "That really happened? When?" A few of us remember nearly everything; most remember some of i; and another few can't remember where they lived last year. So don't be too hard on yourself for not remembering which one she was. Take as gifts her remembering you and the fact that she has evidently used something you said as a tool for a better life.