REMINISCE VS REMEMBER

             REMINISCE vs REMEMBER 

I was sitting in my glider with my legs up on the foot stool-- arms folded across my chest and eyes almost asleep, but not quite.

Then this little soft voice came from behind me. "What are you doing dear." Of course my eyes quickly opened and replied, I was just reminiscing a little." Well at that point she asked me if I remembered I had an appointment with my eye Doctor in thirty minutes? And of course I had forgot.

So later in the day, after seeing my eye Doctor, the thought came to my mind that there seemed to be a definite difference between Reminiscing and Remembering. Well I do not know but if I think about it a while and shut my eyes and ponder, or reminisce a while perhaps I will come up with an answer. At least one that will satisfy my curiosity.

It seems as I get older I do a lot more reminiscing than I do remembering? At least it is that way in my case.

After doing a very scientific survey, I talked to 8 or 10 people -- got their opinion as to the difference in the two words.

Most of the people in my survey, (scientific of course), all commented on a couple of phrases, that seemed to define Reminisce to them. --To indulge yourself in happy thoughts while resting your eyes." Another was to think about things you have done in the past , usually things that made you feel happy, but also at times, some things that were sad or hurtful, either physically or mentally. 

And then there are the things you seem to remember, or thoughts that you actually try and bring back into your mind but you can't. Some of them my be very important but you still cannot remember what they were?

My family has known for a long time that I love to Reminisce, or day dream, or even just sit and discuss, with others the things I have done in the past. Sometimes we talk about things for short periods of time, and other times I go on Reminiscing about the same subject, person or place for days.

I have not determined what makes us want to talk about the past, or how it came to appear in my mind but it happens all the time, not even waiting for an invite! 

It could be about people, places, things, food, pictures or old friends. It does not seem to matter what the subject is or how long ago it happened and sometimes two or three seem to get mixed into one. At that point I usually get that "come on that did not really happen" look! And perhaps some of them did not happen? 

One of my (survey members- ha ha ) said they thought Reminisce was just a fancy word that is used by a lot of old people. I suppose that might be more truth than fiction. In most cases I suppose, at my age, you could just say that we stretch things a little? One of the smart guys, said Remembering  is just the ability to remember or recollect.  I think he cheated on my question and (Goggled) it.

This is a good time of year to Reminisce. The Holiday season is almost upon us. My wife always told us it was the beginning of the best time of the year. Each year she would Reminisce about past years for each holiday. She loved to talk about little pieces of memories and great big chunks also. And Christmas was her favorite time to talk about Christmas's past and present. She started making and buying presents for Christmas right after New Years. And she always worried that perhaps she had left a friend off of her Christmas card list.

Now I have talked a lot about Reminiscing, perhaps because that is what I do best? But how about Remembering? The people I asked to help me on this, kind of agreed, that Remembering is a different kind of word than Reminiscing. It is not a napping in the rocker kind of word. You have to work at it, --like, did you remember your friends Birthday? Did you remember to get gas? It is something you store in the gray matter of your mind, because you KNOW you have to accomplish it later. If we would all Remember we would have less stress at home. l.e. --You mean you did not REMEMBER to STOP AT THE SCHOOL?

Someone else told me that Reminiscing is like living "the good life" all over, but usually at a lot slower speed. (that sounds like it came out of a dictionary)?

   EXCUSE ME I HAVE TO GO-------I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT SOMETHING I NEED TO WRITE DOWN BEFORE I FORGET________________

WRB-26 Oct 2017