Tom Brady and Forgetting
A few games back, Tom Brady's team was losing. How could Tom Terrific have a bad game? But at the very end with one minute left, he got the football. The announcers could hardly keep from being excited. "He's come back with a minute left on something like 45 games! Maybe he can do it again." So we all held our breath(well, maybe not that) and watched him go to work. First there was a running play that got just a few yards. Then there was a pass that was dropped. Then there was another running play that went nowhere. Finally, there was the 4th down and a sloppy pass. That was it. Tom Terrific didn't come back this time. But we all watched as he turned to the referee and held up 4 fingers, pleading the case that it was 4th down. No,Tom, you forgot what the down was. You, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time-- you lost track and somehow thought there was going to be another chance.
But we all forget sometimes. In high school I played the tympani(kettle drums) during the concert season, but when we were marching at football games and contests, I played bells. They are a pretty instrument and sound out over the orchestra. The drum line always composed a cadence that would include a solo from my bells. We were in Wichita Falls for marching contest and were getting our instruments unloaded. There were 4 schools ahead of us before we did our routine, each routine to last about 7 minutes. As I took the bells out of their case, I began to feel for the mallet, the stick you hit them with to make the lovely sounds. Holy music, I had left the mallet back at the band hall in Denton. The judges were bound to notice that the bell sounds were missing from the routine. My band director might kill me. I didn't know what to do. But then the captain of our drum line, Jerry, walked up to ask me something, and I decided I must tell him that I had forgotten my mallet. He gave a deep sigh, thought for a moment, and then snapped a finger. "Come with me!" I followed him not knowing what we were about to do. He went to the drum line of a band that was scheduled to be the 3rd band after us. He hunted for their bell player, found her, and told her what had happened. His plan: let us borrow her mallet for our routine and then dash back to their band to return it to her before they had to go onto the field. She had no problem with it and agreed. So we took the borrowed mallet back to our band, we went on field to give our routine, and afterwards I ran to the band behind us and returned the mallet. My director never found out and never had to kill me for forgetting something important.
And sometimes forgetting leads to amazing results. In 1840 Margaret Lea met Sam Houston at an Alabama garden party and instantly fell in love with him. She forgot that: he was 47(she was 20), he was Catholic(she was Baptist), he had a disastrous first marriage that lasted 5 or 6 weeks(she had never even had a suitor), he had a second marriage to an Indian woman that wasn't recognized legally(she wasn't sure about that), he was a politician and would spend hours talking to people about issues(she was rather reserved), he drank far too much(she believed in only a sip for social reasons), he had numerous affairs since his divorce(she thought she could change him), he would be living in Texas(she was from Alabama where all her family lived), he would be leaving to go visit Andy Jackson after their 5 day courtship and engagement and would not return until the day before the wedding(she would wait for him forever). She forgot anything that people would have considered a hindrance to their engagement and marriage and focused only on the fact that she loved him from the moment she first saw him and knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. And for the next 23 years she remembered only the times they had which gave them 8 children, made him be baptized into the Baptist church, made him always faithful to her, made him quit drinking, and made him the husband and father she knew he could be.
But we all forget sometimes. In high school I played the tympani(kettle drums) during the concert season, but when we were marching at football games and contests, I played bells. They are a pretty instrument and sound out over the orchestra. The drum line always composed a cadence that would include a solo from my bells. We were in Wichita Falls for marching contest and were getting our instruments unloaded. There were 4 schools ahead of us before we did our routine, each routine to last about 7 minutes. As I took the bells out of their case, I began to feel for the mallet, the stick you hit them with to make the lovely sounds. Holy music, I had left the mallet back at the band hall in Denton. The judges were bound to notice that the bell sounds were missing from the routine. My band director might kill me. I didn't know what to do. But then the captain of our drum line, Jerry, walked up to ask me something, and I decided I must tell him that I had forgotten my mallet. He gave a deep sigh, thought for a moment, and then snapped a finger. "Come with me!" I followed him not knowing what we were about to do. He went to the drum line of a band that was scheduled to be the 3rd band after us. He hunted for their bell player, found her, and told her what had happened. His plan: let us borrow her mallet for our routine and then dash back to their band to return it to her before they had to go onto the field. She had no problem with it and agreed. So we took the borrowed mallet back to our band, we went on field to give our routine, and afterwards I ran to the band behind us and returned the mallet. My director never found out and never had to kill me for forgetting something important.
And sometimes forgetting leads to amazing results. In 1840 Margaret Lea met Sam Houston at an Alabama garden party and instantly fell in love with him. She forgot that: he was 47(she was 20), he was Catholic(she was Baptist), he had a disastrous first marriage that lasted 5 or 6 weeks(she had never even had a suitor), he had a second marriage to an Indian woman that wasn't recognized legally(she wasn't sure about that), he was a politician and would spend hours talking to people about issues(she was rather reserved), he drank far too much(she believed in only a sip for social reasons), he had numerous affairs since his divorce(she thought she could change him), he would be living in Texas(she was from Alabama where all her family lived), he would be leaving to go visit Andy Jackson after their 5 day courtship and engagement and would not return until the day before the wedding(she would wait for him forever). She forgot anything that people would have considered a hindrance to their engagement and marriage and focused only on the fact that she loved him from the moment she first saw him and knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. And for the next 23 years she remembered only the times they had which gave them 8 children, made him be baptized into the Baptist church, made him always faithful to her, made him quit drinking, and made him the husband and father she knew he could be.
Forgetting is an experience for all of us, no matter the point of life we are in. And it will happen--football player, band member, young girl, famous leader, senior citizen, salesman, parent. We can laugh at the minutes we spent looking for keys or a receipt because everyone has that universal lost time. We go on, pick up the pieces, and see where life takes us.
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