As If I Didn’t Already Know (standard:humor, 906 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Oct 13 2024	Views/Reads: 78/33	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
God knows what I’m thinking all the time. I want to discipline myself to have thoughts that honor and please God. To think about God is the great pleasure of being a Christian.

I've been accused of many things throughout my life, but never having a
great memory. 

It's not that I don't try to remember things; I can't remember things
I'm supposed to remember. It has nothing to do with my age because it 
started as far back as I can remember. 

This dramatically affects my relationship with The Gracious Mistress of
the Parsonage. Her memory is perfect. She can remember things that 
actually never happened. How she does that is beyond my understanding. 
Trust me, I'm not going to ask her to explain it to me because then I 
would have to remember that explanation for the rest of my life. Some 
things are not worth remembering. 

It's not so much that I don't remember things, I just am busy when
things are happing. I don't remember what's happening when I'm watching 
TV because I'm busy doing something else. When The Gracious Mistress of 
the Parsonage is conversing with me, I don't remember everything 
because I'm busy doing something else. 

When I was young, one of my favorite authors was James Thurber, who
wrote the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which later 
became a movie. 

When Thurber was young, he and his brother played a game called "William
Tell," which I had never heard of before but somehow involved bows and 
arrows. In the middle of that game, his brother, by mistake, shot an 
arrow hitting Thurber in the left eye, causing him to lose that eye. 
Later, his other eye suffered, and he was almost completely blind. 

Thurber was a writer, and most of his writing was done in his head.
Then, the next morning, he would sit down with his secretary, and she 
would write out the story as Thurber would dictate it to her. 

Often, when Thurber and his wife were having dinner with some friends,
his wife would say, "Jim, will you stop writing and listen to what 
we're saying?" Of course, he was always working on some short story 
wherever he was. 

Although I am not blind, I often do the same thing. I'm always working
on a sermon, a newspaper column, or an article in my head even when I'm 
with others. I might be watching TV, visiting friends at some 
restaurant or just sitting at home with my wife. 

I can remember just about everything I'm writing in my head which I will
write out later. That technique, which I learned from James Thurber, 
has greatly profited me. However, it has also hindered me in the social 
area. 

Even though I can remember what I was working on in my head at the time,
I can't remember the conversation with people around me. I can never 
figure that out. 

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage often says, "Do you remember what
I told you yesterday?" 

That is a question to ponder. Whether I say yes or no, I'm still in some
trouble. 

Now, if she said something like, "Do you remember what you were thinking
last week when we were at dinner with some of our friends?" 

I would remember almost to the word what I was thinking, but the talk
around the table is beyond my recollection. 

Even while watching television, something will happen on some program,
which will get me thinking about the sermon I'm working on. Pretty 
soon, I'll be working on that sermon and laying out details. I call it 
my thinking cloud. 

While watching TV together, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage
sometimes laughs and says, "Did you hear that? Wasn't that funny?" 

I will look at her, laugh and say, "That was hilarious." 



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