I’m Losing My Mind One Word at a Time - Hooseywhatsit
Aging and the inappropriate use of Google
I’ve reached a stage in my life where words sometimes fail me. Most of my friends are there as well and we joke about it sometimes. I’m a pretty positive person, so I always try to find humor in a difficult situation.
When he forgot what things were called, my father used to call them the Hooseywhatsit, as in, “Pass the Hooseywhatsit.”
We ask for the salt by saying, "Please pass the white stuff,” while gesturing at the shaker.
It’s frustrating, but it’s part of aging.
I don’t have the same problem when I’m writing. Although, I sometimes use Google inappropriately.
I might type; “the thing we go out on the ocean in”, and invariably Google will return enough clues to prod my memory about the kind of sailing ship I’m trying to remember.
It happens often enough that we’ve noticed something curious.
The words that disappear are invariably nouns.
I don’t forget the word ‘pass’, for example. But I might forget the name of a certain dish on the table; ‘potatoes’, for example. We thought we should name the problem.
We’ve decided to call it Noun Deficiency Syndrome or NDS for short.
When I notice someone is struggling to find a word, I tell them there’s a name for their condition…..
“It’s NDS.” I’ll say, with a straight face.
Sometimes, for just a moment, they take it seriously and I have to explain the joke.
Here’s a poem about losing your mind……
Questions for you:
Do you have moments when you forget the names of things?
What do you do to help you notice when that’s happening?
If you had a nothing box, what would you do with it?