Brain Dead Before 40

When is it that we apply filters to our brains? Or is it that we just get dumber as we get older? Or is it that my almost 10 year old just has an exceptional memory?

Really, when I was his age, I think I remembered everything, too. Mostly statistics. But that's where my interests lay. And I remember wondering how my father could remember all this stuff from when he was 10 but he didn't know who won the World Series last year. Now I have become this puzzling man. I can still name the 1977 NY Yankees starting lineup (lot of help that is in the real world) but I no longer know who is currently in the AL East. Don't even get me started with the NFL and those new fangled South divisions. I humor myself by thinking that now I filter out the trivial to conserve space for the important.

My son remembers everything. Today we read a story about the medieval far east. I, with my archaic brain, misread a question and implied that China was introduced to books during this time. But the son says, "That's not right, Mom. They had books in China a long time before that. Remember when they tried to burn them." "Oh, yes. Like in the Magic Tree House book about the Dragon King," I reply. "Um-hum," says he.

This particular son loves history. He inevitably finds a program on TV that corresponds with something we have recently read. I don't point him in the right direction. In fact, I wish the TV would disappear permanently. He just flips until he finds something interesting. He's forever reinforcing without meaning to.

But his memory doesn't stop with history. He plays a computer game with his father where they need to accumulate items and then cash them in for a reward. So, the dad needs, say, 27 apples. He may collect them over several sessions that last a week or more. Players amass many items simultaneously. The son has 3 characters that he plays. The dad has 4 characters that he plays. Yet, the son recognizes when dad's character #2 has reached his goal of 27 apples. Dad is clueless. He has a sense that he's getting close and he'll look it up when he's finished with this session. But not son. He keeps all these trivial facts filed in a retrievable fashion in his brain.

So, how do you keep a kid capable of cataloging all kinds of information in his head? And what about the ancient among us? Are we beyond help or is there hope that we can use our brains again?

I've recently been forced to explain to my children that if they want to know how old some relative is that I need to do the math. I long ago figured out that I can remember what year a person was born because it is constant. But if I want to know their age, then I must subtract. (And that whole change of century thing adds to the complexity of the calculation.) The big 2 (9 and 7) looked at me as though I'd sprouted a second head. (Wishful thinking, if it came with an extra brain.) I guess that they haven't maxed out their retrieval functions yet.

So, since there is still room in their heads, I'll keep feeding them data that could prove valuable some day. After all, if you don't study history then you are doomed to repeat it. (Somebody must have told me that before I was 10.) No doubt they'll hit their late 30s and wonder why they know so much about knights and vikings. If they could only replace that trivia with useful information.