Google as a Memory Enhancer

I never cease to be amazed at what I can find by googling (or yahooing, or binging, or whatever your religion is.) It almost seems like I don't have to even type the words - it reads my mind.

I was thinking about a guy I used to deliver papers to when I was in elementary school. The wrestling promoter for the State of Hawaii, Ed Francis. (His son Russ Francis played for the New England Patriots. One of my claims to fame - Richard Piefer and I played some basketball with him and his brother one day. OK, I was about 11 and he was definitely in high school at the time and whooped our butts. Or as I like to think of it, we built his confidence enabling him to have a successful NFL career.)

I looked him up on google and found out much more than I ever knew about the whole wrestling scene in Hawaii in the 60's. And found names I hadn't heard in a long time. Curtis "The Bull" Iaukea, Lord Blears, the Masked Executioner. I can still feel the thud through the television as I secretly (parents didn't approve) watched "50th State Wrestling" - the highest rated television show in the state at the time. Then at school the next week we guys would steal around to the front of the church where we were blocked from view and we would try out all the moves. I don't think we broke anything.

I haven't thought of that for a long, loonng, looonnnnggg time. I have no interest now in wrestling. But it was sure an attention-getter to an 12 year old.

It makes me think about this thing called "memory" and how it functions. So much lies dormant for so long. Then with a few promptings a flood of thoughts, sights, smells, tastes, and sounds comes back. Almost like it was yesterday (more yesterdays for some of us.)

I guess nothing ever leaves us completely - it just gets harder to find in there. But the sense of fun that seems to come back when I look at pictures from long ago or find some serendipity on the internet reminds me: Today is tomorrow's memory. Make it a memory you will smile about. Make it a memory worth googling in 40 years. Find ways to file it away for later retrieval - pictures, recordings, diaries, blogs.

When you have more years behind you than you have ahead of you, you begin to realize the value of a life full of memories worth remembering. Less "stuff." More memories.