| Several years ago, I switched health insurance | | | | the time I misplaced my purse before an |
| companies and my new insurer sent a uniformed | | | | important ceremony and had nothing to contribute |
| nurse with short black hair to my house to | | | | to the fight against world hunger.The increasing |
| conduct a health assessment. We sat at my | | | | bouts of absent-mindedness had been worrying |
| kitchen table and she officiously asked questions | | | | me, and the jokes from friends about early |
| about my health history."Diabetes?" she asked, as | | | | Alzheimer's were starting to be not so hilarious. |
| if accusing me of illicit drug use."No," I | | | | But last week I got some valuable insight into |
| answered."Cancer?" Nope."High blood pressure?" | | | | absent-mindedness when I completed an |
| Nope.When she'd completed the questionnaire, she | | | | assessment called the Gregore Style |
| reached into a portable metal case and retrieved | | | | Delineator.This assessment groups people into |
| a white plastic cup. "Last thing I'll need is a urine | | | | four types based on how they value certain |
| sample," she said, sliding the cup toward me | | | | words. The word "lively," for example, struck me |
| across the wooden table.I took the cup to my | | | | as more appealing than "rational." I liked the word |
| bathroom, set it on the white tile counter, | | | | "spontaneous" better than "trouble shooter."When |
| unzipped my jeans, sat down, and promptly | | | | the results of my word valuations were tabulated, |
| started thinking about something else. Many long | | | | I was shown to be a clear "Abstract Random," |
| seconds later, I stood, re-zipped my jeans, and, | | | | whose negative characteristics include a proclivity |
| still absorbed in my thoughts, looked down to find | | | | towards "flightiness," and an inattention to detail |
| the empty plastic cup waiting on the tile | | | | which often earns them the title of -- and I'm |
| counter.My consciousness careened back to the | | | | quoting directly from the assessment -- "an |
| present. The cup!! How could I forget to fill the | | | | off-the-wall flake."However, in reviewing the |
| cup?!! I picked it up and held it at eye level. The | | | | assessment, I learned there are several good |
| cup seemed larger somehow, and infinitely | | | | reasons why Abstract Randoms -- "A-Rs" for |
| unfillable, like a gigantic movie prop from "Honey, I | | | | short -- appear so flighty. For starters, and I'm |
| Shrunk the Kids." I set it back down and | | | | bragging only a little here, A-Rs have vivid |
| considered my options.I could fill the cup with | | | | imaginations, a tremendous capacity to absorb |
| water and "trip" on my way out of the bathroom. | | | | and relate seemingly unrelated facts, and they |
| I could invent an excuse involving dehydration or | | | | often divert their attention only to that which has |
| bladder shyness. I could wedge through the | | | | personal meaning. (A urine cup? I don't think |
| narrow window above the bathtub and flee to the | | | | so.)Furthermore, A-Rs rarely work in a sterile |
| airport.Realizing none of these schemes would | | | | office with an orderly desk. Instead, and I plead |
| work, I ultimately had to admit to the nurse that | | | | guilty, the office of an A-R is located in whatever |
| I'd forgotten what I'd gone to the bathroom for. | | | | coffee shop she happens to be working in. Her |
| "I can drink a bunch of water and try again in a | | | | filing cabinet is in her head.Needless to say, I found |
| few minutes," I offered."That's okay," she said, | | | | these results reassuring. As a journalist, I'm paid |
| grabbing the empty cup and dropping it into her | | | | to find connections between people and the |
| metal box. "I'll come back tomorrow. I have | | | | events that surround them. Thus, I have to |
| nothing better to do."I'd like to report this was an | | | | spend time musing about life and what it means, |
| aberrant bout of absent-mindedness, something | | | | and sometimes the best time for musing is when |
| that could be chalked up to cold medication or a | | | | I'm doing some other mindless task. So what if I |
| fight with my mother. But the fact is, I tend to | | | | forget a purse in the process?All of this has |
| forget. A lot. And it's getting worse.In the last | | | | gotten me to thinking about something I learned |
| several months, I've left my purse in two Mexican | | | | in a novel writing class and that is that a |
| restaurants, a coffee shop, the trunk of a friend's | | | | character's greatest strength is also her biggest |
| car, and a department store dressing room. Two | | | | weakness.It's certainly true in my case, but it's |
| weeks ago, I removed a nozzle from my garden | | | | also true of many people: the brilliant physician |
| hose and spent the latter part of that afternoon | | | | who focuses so intently on healing a patient's |
| trying, in vain, to discover where I'd placed it.The | | | | body that he neglects to comfort her soul; the |
| scary part for me is that over the last few | | | | quick-thinking marketing whiz who's hugely |
| months I've also been going to a Zen Center in an | | | | intolerant of people who don't "get it" as quickly |
| effort to practice meditation and mindfulness. One | | | | as he does. Even Einstein, from what I hear, |
| of my goals has been to become less forgetful | | | | couldn't remember his own address or phone |
| by being more fully present. Or, to paraphrase a | | | | number.The point I'm trying to make, and I'm not |
| popular Buddhist saying, "To pee here now."But | | | | at all defensive about this, is that no one is strong |
| I've even forgotten things at the Zen Center, like | | | | in all facets of human behavior. |