Does Forgetfulness = Stupidity?

March 8, 2008 by Keli.

Well, folks, I think it’s finally happened. I’ve crossed over to the other side. Just like a good cop gone bad or a shrink who turns loonier than her patients, or even a Jedi Knight who joins the dark side, a la Darth Vader. This stupidity specialist may have officially earned stuper (that’s right; short for a miserably stupid person) status.

We’re all forgetful at times. We forget to buy milk when milk was the reason for going to the grocery store in the first place. We forget to remove the keys from the ignition before locking the doors of the pick-up truck. We rent movies only to discover upon viewing that we’ve watched them before… and not even that long ago. We forget people’s names. We may even forget people. And how about that cell phone? Ever leave one behind or think you did, when in fact, it was buried deep within the confines of your swimming pool size handbag?

Does this kind of general forgetfulness automatically give a person complimentary membership to the minimalist school of thought? Are we stupers when we are routinely forgetful? If so, count me in.

My personal, troubling foray deep into the ranks of stupidity occurred when I was asked to read a book. I am a voracious reader. But sometimes, even as I read, I start to forget what I have read. For instance: take a chemistry or trigonometry textbook. My sixteen-year-old asked me to read a page from his chemistry book, and then explain it to him. I read a paragraph and found myself immediately forgetting what I read. The words and content were systematically erased, vanishing from my memory as quickly as they entered. I tried again and the same thing happened. Stupidity had raised its empty head. And that head belonged to me. I became frightened of becoming that which I found most offensive.

But it wasn’t my fault. The text was so wretchedly tedious, my mind refused to process it. I believe this manner of forgetting is to be expected sometimes, particularly when reading books of little wit and even less interest.

We live busy lives. And forgetting happens. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve placed various objects in what I thought were secure, but obvious places, and then completely forgotten the location of this obvious place. I misplaced a pair of large (Ritz cracker size) earrings that I hid when moving. I finally located them… seven months later, in a shoebox with similar missing items. I hide things so well, that even I can’t find them.

If forgetfulness is a character flaw of stupers, than stupers would rule the earth. I know it seems that way sometimes anyway, especially when driving on highways or shopping at huge warehouse type chain stores, but a poor memory does not a stuper make.

The process of forgetting is inevitable among stupers and non-stupers alike. The difference between the two is, non-stupers generally remember that they forgot. Not so for the diligent dolts.

Exercise care. Stupers are out there.

Think.

Keli

Kei@Counterfeithumans.com

Posted in My very own stupidity, Plain Old Fashioned Stupidity | 6 Comments »