LISTEN UP AND THEN FORGET IT

This is the process of politics and bureaucracy that often is where I find myself dwelling. A place where you are expected to pay attention like you really care about what is being said, but then nobody asks if you remember it later.

Which hardly makes having to look like you remember it as actually a good thing. Only you can't tell the people who expect this you aren't going to do it. They just won't understand.

You would think they could fathom how stupid this all is, but they never do. And naturally there are times when they do have a reason for you to listen. Such as if they are discussing something like emergency plans.

Now with something as important as that, you definitely want to pay attention. At least on the surface.

However, let's be honest, if I'm being told to do in the event of a natural disaster and it requires lot of memory, will I actually recall it during a crisis? I doubt it.

Truth is I'll probably be so panic and stressed out it will be all I can do just to function. But that isn't factored into these discussions.

And it doesn't work to expect somebody else to remember it either. Wish that was the case.

Oh I have tried it. But it never works. In a disaster you can count the other person won't be any better at not freaking out that you are. So forget it helping.

Except for perhaps being able to blame them. Which hardly helps if you get wiped out by some disaster. Somehow being able to say, "It's all your fault, when you are about to die, just doesn't cut it for me."

I wish it was really that simple, but it never is. Instead, life never gives you that kind of joy. There is never a last minute scapegoat to fit every situation.

So I play the game like the rest of the world. Sitting in some meeting listening to somebody drone on and on about you know something that is important. Only totally aware I'll never remember it.

Yeah, that's the reality. It bugs me naturally. But I keep thinking to myself, how in the world do these people seriously think I can possibly remember all the vivid details they are giving me if I don't need them for years?

That is one little aspect nobody seems to worry about. Which never allows me any chance to even question the logic. So I pretend to listen and hope that when I need it the booklet they give me will make sense. If not, I'll dream of a scapegoat just before I end up kissing my behind goodbye.