Last week, when I went to our refrigerator to get a glass of
cold water, I saw an unfamiliar yellow-orange dot of light glowing from the top of the
display. Under the glowing dot were the words Water Filter and explanations for different color codes. Hmm. I
pulled out the Frigidaire® manual which was filed away with pounds of other
warranty cards and manuals. The light was telling me that it was time to order a new filter. I read the ordering instructions and noted how often filters typically needed changing (every 200 gallons) – and I
then marveled.
Isn’t it great that the fridge knows when its parts need to
be replaced?
I started to think about the many systems that are in place
in my life so that I don’t have to spend energy trying to remember details that
don’t affect me in the moment. It’s like
having a maid for my memory.
Yes, I can record appointments, even phone calls, in Outlook and program alarms so that I receive
notifications a week before, a day before, or an hour before a scheduled event.
But there are memory maids in my life
that live outside of my computer.
I get notices from Jiffy
Lube or my car dealer when I need to have routine maintenance. I’ll get
confirming calls from restaurants the day before a reservation to remind me of
arrangements I may have made weeks earlier. I get silly postcards from my dentist, usually
with grinning orange Garfield cartoons, to remind me it’s time to have my teeth
cleaned. I get notices from the library
when a book is a week overdue so that I don’t inadvertently rack up excessive fines.
I often balk at invitations to get me to be more organized. I
am not an organized person by nature. I have mountains of legal pads and
loaded Pend-o-flex file folders because I am resistant to rely on paperless computer
directories. I leave myself Post-its® everywhere to help me jog my memory about
things I might want to buy at the store.
But tools for helping me keep appointments or remember
promises – I feel a great debt of gratitude for things that help me on these
counts.
I view time as precious, and I don’t want to miss anything
that may be important. I don’t want to be disrespectful of any friend or
colleague with whom I made plans who may be counting on connecting at a certain time.
In some ways, I think time is one of the few things of any intrinsic
value. I consider what I spend my time on to be a total reflection of what’s really
important to me.
I know that while I love to test my memory (I am good at
recalling zip codes, song lyrics, and menus from stellar restaurant meals eaten
since I was eight years old), trying to juggle details about where I need to be or
what I need to respond to based on old promises, is a mental chore I would just
as well farm out.
Thanks to all the memory
maids in my life, the people and systems in place that absolve me of the
need to keep track of many things directly.
With my maids
silently keeping watch for me, I can give my full attention to what I am
experiencing in the present moment, and that’s no small thing.
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