Some Things Are Sticky

February 27, 2023

What do you do with memories? So many of those in my early years seem inconsequential now. Why do I remember winning the 2-mile run at a track meet in my junior year of high school? It was a dreadful time, over fourteen minutes, but I was proud to see my name in the local paper. Why do I remember my fellow football player at college picking up his dinner plate when he was done and licking the plate clean? It’s also unclear why I hold onto the memory of strange Christmas presents I received.

It’s all clutter, and I don’t really like clutter.

There are physical objects I don’t get rid of very easily. I save screws left over from kits I put together. (Manufacturers used to include one or two extra.). I have an extra garden tool (or two or three) whose handle has broken, and I’ve bought a replacement tool. There are a few broken or tarnished tie clips I keep but will never use.

I guess it all adds up. Memories made me who I am, good and bad, and I’m reluctant to discard recognition of these building blocks. The memories somehow are part of my foundation, and only a fool would jettison the part that supports the present structure.

What I’m trying to get at is my habit of reading through the Bible every year. I’m not sure why parts of it stick in my mind better than others. Some parts seem dull, repetitive, even irrelevant. It all is stored somewhere in my brain. It’s part of the foundation.

As I said earlier, all the parts make up my foundation, and only a fool would jettison what supports the whole structure.

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like the wise man who built his house on the rock,” Matthew 7:24