This too, shall not be recalled

John Crabtree
3 min read5 days ago

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Do you ever experience the inability to recall a memory that you know exists?

You are trying to remember the name of a person, a place, a thing

You know exactly what you are thinking of

Yet your brain can’t seem to connect the memory to the desired instance

The experience to the place

The person to the name

The dots are there, but for some reason they do not want to connect…

This morning, I drove myself crazy trying to recall a memory

This evening, it has yet to surface

There of variations of a fable known for the phrase “this too shall pass”

I know I appeared in a book I read recently

At the start of a new chapter

Visually, I see the page… left, 3/4 of the way down

Yet I cannot seem the place it

My mind has not been able to let this go

“Where in the world did I see that?!”

If you can help me place this, please do

I know I read it somewhere (some book) I just can’t place it

Here is one of the variations of it:

When an Eastern sage was desired by his sultan to inscribe on a ring the sentiment which, amidst the perpetual change of human affairs, was most descriptive of their real tendency, he engraved on it the words: — “And this, too, shall pass away.”

It is impossible to imagine a thought more truly and universally applicable to human affairs than that expressed in these memorable words, or more descriptive of that perpetual oscillation from good to evil, and from evil to good, which from the beginning of the world has been the invariable characteristic of the annals of man, and so evidently flows from the strange mixture of noble and generous with base and selfish inclinations, which is constantly found in the children of Adam — WIKI

It amazes me how much our minds can become so wrapped around a specific thing

That we lose sight or focus of all else until we are able to “resolve” what is missing

It almost felt as if this was consuming my brain’s entire bandwidth….

It is still taking up space

I hope that in writing this, I can actually let this go…

“What was the name of the book I read that in?”

“Who wrote it, maybe if I can remember the author?”

“How can I not recall a book I read no more than a year ago?!”

Perhaps it is my frustration with my own memory,

With my own recall more than the need to know

Still, I found myself skimming through my books, trying to finish this passage

My mind knows exactly what the page looks like

Yet it cannot place it

It’s become an almost addictive thought

Why can’t I let this go?

“Once I figure this out, then I can calm down”

What an exhausting state to live in

Today’s thought is really a question

Where have you seen this quote?

Can you help me place it?

And for the love of all that is good, how do you let go of a memory that can’t seem to be recalled?

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