My Rememberall

For all of you out there who haven’t read the Harry Potter series, first of all, you should, and second of all, a rememberall is a magical ball that Neville Longbottom (a very forgetful character)uses to try to improve his memory. The way a rememberall works is that it fills with smoke when its owner has forgotten something important. In theory, this would be an amazing tool in the forgetful person’s tool kit of tips and tricks, I mean, who wouldn’t want to get an instantaneous reminder every time they forgot something important. The flaw, as Neville quickly discovered is that the rememberall merely tells a person when they have forgotten something, but it does not tell the person what it is they have forgotten.

OK, so, raise your hand if you if you have ever remembered the night before that you need to remember to bring something really important with you to work or class the next day. In the morning, after you have climbed down the four flights of stairs on your way to work, you remember just as you are reaching the bottom that you needed that very important something. Then you have to climb all the way back upstairs to retrieve it, and you are inevitably late for class. And even if you do not remember at the bottom of the stairs, you will inevitably have this nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ve forgotten something, but will you be able to remember what you have forgotten? Inevitably, you will never be able to remember what you need when you need to.

If only there was a way to anticipate forgetting something…

To Be Continued…