Opus 2018-174: Digging into Deuteronomy: Memory Loss

(Deuteronomy 4:9 KJV)  Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

Why is it that we seem to need to keep repeating things to remember them?  When I was in high school and college I knew everyone’s birthday.  Now I have to write down the dates for my wife and kids.  I once had long passages of scripture memorized and now can’t even remember which ones they were.  I could quote the Gettysburg Address.  I used to know the proper mixture for mixing mortar.  I could look at a baby and tell you how many months.  The list goes on.  I would give you more examples but I can’t remember what I have forgotten.

This verse tries to alert us to the danger of forgetting.  The fade starts as our eyes stop looking at them.  Then they get vague in our minds and eventually they wither in our hearts.  You may not have any tools to study the Hebrew but “give heed” and “keep” (8104) are the same Hebrew word.  The antidote is given twice.  We remember by repetition.  Every year when I was teaching I had to work through how to figure percentages.  I knew there was a formula, I just didn’t remember what numbers went where.  After a few times reviewing it all came back and I didn’t need to think about it any more, until next year.  Every summer the knowledge would hide because I wasn’t using it.

One of the best ways to remember the important things is to teach them to your children.  That reinforces by repetition but it also puts you on the line.  You have declared something you believe to be important.  You have demanded that they learn it.  Now you better live up to it yourself. 

There may be a few people with perfect memory but that isn’t me and probably isn’t you.  We have to work at it.

homo unius libri