July 2 - I Forgot Day
By definition, today is not a day to remember, except if you’re a florist, because that’s who obviously thought up this holiday. Many florists advertise it as “a day for people to send flowers and gifts to make up for occasions they forgot to acknowledge.”
I say phewy on that. Let’s hijack this holiday and celebrate our puny human minds which often act more like collanders than sponges. I’ve forgotten people’s names, my own phone number, the day of the week I got married, the thing I went to the grocery store to buy, etc. And I’m tired of feeling bad about all the things I’ve forgotten. It doesn’t necessarily mean I’m getting old. It just means I occassionaly get a bit scatterbrained. Hey, my nieces and nephews know they’ll get their birthday checks eventually!
Yesterday I visited my 92-year-old grandma who went to sign a check and forgot how to spell her last name. She didn’t get all upset about the lapse—just asked how to spell “Stuart” (her name for the past 70 years!) as if she were asking about the weather. I applaud her refusal to be bothered about such trifles … After all, she still can remember the letter and number called the first time she won at bingo and who gave her that pink sweater she was wearing in the Christmas picture from 1989 and the names and birthdays of several dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When I’m 92, I hope I can remember half as much stuff as she’s forgotten.
So if you forget something today, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just tell whoever cares that you did it to mark the holiday.