I always think hikes that I am doing for the second or third time are shorter than they actually are. The Selective Amnesia has gotten me in some trouble at times. (My whole body just shivered bringing that one up.) In my mind the hikes are only those quick memories and not the 10 miles it took me to make them.

The bad ones have somehow been deposited into a vault that only contains the thoughts I had of the “palate expanding retainer” I wore as a kid. The good memories are alive and dance through my brain like sugar plums in a Christmas tune. But where in the hell did this hill come from? The peak or lake at the top is seared into my memory so clearly I could paint it (after 20 years of art lessons). The tiny stream that I have to cross is exactly where I thought. I remember the amazing field of flowers each spring. I remember the trailhead, could drive there blindfolded (please don’t). Selective Amnesia is a bit of a mystery to me but it is the only way to explain the fact that I can remember all of the good parts of a hike yet somehow completely forget about the 10,000 feet of elevation gain it took me to get to them.

I remember the lake but the Selective Amnesia makes how I got here a challenge What Is This? Now I can’t seem to remember if it ever happened before. The brain function I never experienced until I started hiking was Selective Amnesia. Some people can look at my work space and say that it is messy, while I only see untapped creativity. They would hear that the project would get done but somehow never heard the price tag. There is selective hearing which all of my old bosses had. It can create worlds on one hand and completely ignore reality in other instances.

Otko have selective social amnesia