Dyspepsia

Occasionally, I have been known to write a few words about grief. Here is a LINK to some of those posts.

I was reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, about which I'm undecided as to how much I loved it, and came across this gem. The Major reflects, "This was the dull ache of grief in the real world; more dyspepsia than passion."

Sometimes true, I think, but regardless, I just loved this sentence. Thought I'd share it with you.

Also, just for kicks, my second favorite quote of the book. A young friend of the Major's asks, "But I must ask you, do you really understand what it means to be in love with an unsuitable woman?" To which the Major responds, "My dear boy, is there really any other kind?"

Gotta love the British.

I Forget

I just (almost) finished a book called Moonwalking with Einstein. It was on the topseller and best read lists on Amazon and at my local bookstore, so what could I do. I was hoping, with a title like that, that the book would be a strange tale or something. Not so. It's a book about training one's mind to remember. Specifically, how one person spent a year training his memory in order to compete in the annual Memory Championships.

Don't get me wrong, the book had some definite interesting points. I liked the conversation he started about the need for memory becoming obsolete with the proliferation of technology - like this. I couldn't argue, considering the fact that I blog in order to remember. And there were even some helpful hints about using mnemonic techniques to remember lists and such. But really when it came down to it, I'm just not that interested in remembering those kinds of things. I do want to exercise my brain and "jog" it occasionally. Maybe take a mental stroll around some of the places I've been. We really don't take enough time in our lives to re-experience many things.

However, the fact of the matter is that when I stopped to write down my experience of the book, I forgot the author's name. And that's really okay with me. Josh Foer, by the way. I just looked it up. Thank you, internet...