The mind is amazing
I was just watching the opening scene of How to Steal a Million (1966), starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Audrey Hepburn is driving a little convertible, and from nowhere the words "Hillman Minx" leaped into my mind. I didn’t even know I knew that—and I wasn’t even sure it was a make of car. Wikipedia shows that the Hillman Minx was a very popular line in the 60′s, and that probably was a Hillman Minx she was driving. I have no knowledge of that knowledge in my own head. Weird.
Minds are different. A colleague once observed that I think in anecdotal terms. Another told me that I was the least structured person he knew. I have learned that my mind picks up bits of information and stores them at random, like flies stuck to flypaper. When I need to retrieve some information, I begin to find it in my mind by framing the context as an anecdote. Then what I’m looking for finds its way into my consciousness.
Jack
27 September 2009 at 9:07 am