The human mind is an interesting and quirky thing. We remember a whole lot more than what we actively realize. This morning while in the shower my mind suddenly regurgitated a memory I don’t think I’ve recalled in years, even decades. Somehow I ended up thinking of the 1980s remake of The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond, and specifically the song “On the Robert E. Lee”.
It’s a fun little song, but I can’t recall thinking of it in…forever. Now I’ve got part of it stuck in my head (I can’t recall the entire thing), and that part grows over time as I fill in more and more gaps from my deep, dark, dusty cellar of memory. Memory is a weird, unpredictable thing.
It’s not a given that every connection leads to all connections. I regularly remember the songs “Love on the Rocks” and “America” from the same movie, though I seldom make the connection that they’re from the movie. But it really took some doing to bridge that last little synapse to recall “On the Robert E. Lee”, even though I probably like that song more than the other two.
So I can’t help but wonder what changed to make me finally burn a pathway into that blocked-off little portion of my brain–and why the words, which are obviously still there somewhere, take time to return to memory.
Anyway, the human mind is an amazing thing, capable of astounding feats of memory and creativity. I’m glad I have one. I just wish that particular song would have surfaced sooner. Now that I remember it, I realize I’ve missed it.