Finding Things
In our house I am the person who finds things. If the kids lose their shoes, they come to me. If Howard misplaces a book he comes to me. Most of the time I can find the missing item in a fairly short span of time. There are times when I can find things that belong to Howard which I’ve only seen once several months ago. It is almost uncanny at times. I don’t know how I do it either. It is probably due to the fact that this is my house and I’ve done most of the organization here. Also the things that are moved get moved by my people and I know where they are likely to put things. Whatever magic alchemy that occurs to allow me to find things, takes place on a subconscious level. I can’t just stand in one place and tell you where the object is. I have to wander around until I suddenly know exactly where to go get it.
This evening Howard began packing his things for our coming California trip. He needed a couple of gym bags that neither of us have seen for several months. This time a little piece of me stood back and watched while the finding portions of my brain went into action. Howard had already searched for the bags. I knew this, but I still started in his office where he had already looked. I knew the bag would not be there, but the process of looking through the office triggered something. I knew that the next place I needed to look was with our luggage in the storage room. Sure enough one of the two bags was there. I went to our room to search our closet for the second bag. It was an unlikely place for it now, but last year it ended up there a lot. The bag was not there. I re-searched the luggage storage which triggered a memory of the second bag being out in the garage near the bikes. Sure enough, there it was.
Watching the process was fascinating. None of it was verbal or logical. I had to see and touch things in order to trigger the necessary memories to direct me where to go. I’ve previously noticed that it is much easier for me to go and get something than for me to describe where it is. This means I tend to jump at the beck and call of my kids who need to find their shoes (which are usually “lost” in plain sight.) I’m trying to make them do more of their own looking, but younger children honestly can not recognize the shape of a shoe if it is half covered by a blanket. The pattern recognition faculties just aren’t sufficiently developed yet.
I think that no matter where I am or what I am doing parts of my brain are cataloging objects and locations against possible future need. This same process will identify anomalies and bring them to my direct attention. I don’t consciously notice shoes scattered on the family room floor. That is normal. But if on of Gleek’s shoes is on the windowsill I notice it enough to wonder why it is there. Then when the kids come to me asking for their shoes, I can tell Gleek exactly where her shoe is, but I’ll have to physically go look for the other ones because I never consciously noted them.
Brains are weird.