It's sad but true

I can not recall anything I learned in Algebra, but I remember that "Pulu se bagumba" means 'Let the prisoners go' in the fake language of Kubla Kai from a Gilligan's Island episode.

Perhaps my brain is like a closet in a studio apartment and my mind is stuffed with culottes, wedge shoes and that dress I will never be able to fit into unless I have my hip bones surgically removed.

I cannot remember the names of all 50 states, but I remember that a duck's quack does not echo and a group of ferrets is called a business.

I need more closet space.

Part of it is perhaps that the things I remember are the things that caught my fancy, not things I was forced to learn. I never learned to analyze information either. I just memorized it, spit it back out and moved on. Like an owl eating a mouse, adsorb the meat, spit out the fur and bones in a neat little ball. Ask me to relay a fact, watch me repeat it, but don't ask what it means.

Now I'm 42 and learning is harder, but I enjoy it more. I have been reading about society during the Regency and Victorian Period. It's fascinating to me how the ruler of the country could so deeply impact the structure of society. The Prince Regent was a pleasure loving hedonist and the culture of that time reflected his interests. Segue into an era run by a rather uptight Queen and we get furniture legs swathed in cloth because a bare limb was too suggestive. Amazing.

Perhaps we are flooded by too much information or the illusion of it. How can we understand a news story that is only fifty seconds long? How can I grasp the true reasons for a war when I don't understand the history of the region or the people involved. I can't even find the countries on a map.

It's said that we only use a small portion of our brain. Can we train ourselves to use more? Can we retrain ourselves in how we learn, study and think and get past the express lane mentality of knowledge?

I'm not sure, I hope so. I'm willing to clean out my closet. I never wear half that stuff anyway.