Some memories stay clear, others fade

I had hoped by now that I'd have a new image or two to post here. My scanner still works, but unfortunately my copy of Photoshop LE is acting up. It hangs up as soon as I try to open the program. My guess is that there's a link broken somewhere, whatever that actually means.

No problem, just uninstall Photoshop and re-install it. I thought I'd better find my backup disk first, and it's a good thing I've held off doing the uninstall. It's been a couple of days and I still can't find the disk. It's in this room somewhere...well, I've been needing to clean and sort anyway.

I could post about music, as I have been working on my 1969 list. Holy crow (as James Lileks might say), that was one busy year in rock music. A lot of stuff I like about equally well...this might take a while.

Instead, here's a short true story - not to be confused with a true short story, I guess.

I sat down in my reading chair a couple of evenings ago, and looked in my bookcase...what should I browse? Well, I haven't looked at that in a long time. I pulled out my college yearbook from my Junior year. As I turned page after page, I started to notice something. It's been enough years now that there's really a distinct difference between friends I knew well and have lots of memories of, and faces and names that sort of ring a bell. I think as recently as two or three years ago those two groups of people would have blended together, that is, I would have had stories to tell about everyone I recognized. Now I still have lots of stories about my close friends I ran around with, but the others whose faces I kind of recognize...I couldn't recall stories about them. I don't think I'm having any special memory problems, at least, no one's pointed out any concerns to me. I still remember lots of stuff from last week, last year, last decade, my childhood, etc.

Maybe remembering lots of faces and names is more of a challenge than remembering events; it seems that way to me anyway. I could say to myself, "That's sad" (and it would be if I started to forget people I was really close to). But actually, I think it's normal. Some friends are friends for a lifetime, some are friends for a season, a year, four years. Others were casual friends or acquaintances, and that's all okay.

Yeah, that wasn't all that profound, but it was bloggable (and if that wasn't a word, it is now).