Virtual Vibes

The tree mentioned in the column

I SAY I collect interesting quotes and facts, words and sentences I find curious or rhythmic, random lines from radio or television, stunning statements that make my mind stop and wonder…stuff like that. Oh, that I would keep them in folders or a file box, but no, I grab whatever’s handy and scribble them down for ‘safekeeping’ to mull over later.

Writing stuff down helps with recall for a few hours, but then the flaps of envelopes, backs of Post-its and pieces of junk mail with cluttered margins vanish like socks in the laundry. Some WILL resurface, making the discovery a repeat in the joy and adventure of mulling. I will likely remember circumstances - some vivid and some blurry - that led to the first encounter with the word(s) or phrases and that’s fun, too, mentally checking off a list and comparing the me then to the me now.

I’m easily entertained.

Facebook sporadically provides such gems in my memories feed - encapsulated wisdom I wanted to remember with a related photo. One such entry posted eight years ago popped up recently. I earmarked these words - not for their sounds or forms - but for the instant images that played on the projector in my head when I read them.

“A Harvard study indicates working memory improves by up to 50% after climbing a tree or dancing.”

Can’t you see it - a wild film of ordinary folks with electrodes snapped to their skulls living their lives while being followed by an ever-vigilant photographer? How long did it take the scientists to determine these two totally different activities benefit brains in the same way?

The photo I posted featured a fabulous tree - one adjacent to an Airbnb I shared with a childhood friend I had not seen since early adolescence. From the deck on a breezy St.Louis afternoon, we marveled at its almost symmetrical beauty and imagined the fun we’d have climbing it. Reacquainting her with the city after her 40-year absence kept us sashaying up and down staircases, balancing on riverboat decks, sitting and standing and twirling in awe as we recognized places and recalled childhood while roaming through our neighborhoods. I was all grown up but I did a lot of jumping up and down and clapping. It was a ‘moving’ reunion as we danced through our memories to our own beats.

Visualizing climbing trees and dancing through daily life might help my working memory as much as the real deals. Stumbling upon one of my collected treasures certainly does!