About a decade ago, I began to question my ability to remember not just names but faces as well. Part of my problem began while I was still working in close proximity to others on a regular basis, for my eyesight had deteriorated quickly within a short period. As a result I did not always recognize faces, unless the room lighting was behind me. With cataracts, sunlight could also be problematic for facial recognition, outdoors.
Not long afterward, other health related problems meant letting go of part time work, as well as self employment. I was quite reluctant to do so, and it turned out to be a longer absence from the workplace than I ever intended. After surgery, a short stay in the hospital and also two cataract operations, I moved to a beautiful - but isolated area in the countryside. While this unexpected time freedom allowed me to begin a long term economic project, in those years it also meant not seeing a lot of people for weeks at a time.
It didn't take long to realize that - even with restored eyesight - when I was introduced to someone, I didn't always remember them afterward unless I actually saw them on a semi regular basis. Since some introductions existed in relation to business services which weren't needed often, names and faces of local customers didn't always "take". That bothered me! Part of the problem, was that I didn't often have the reinforcement of seeing these individuals in other social circumstance.
However, some years later I discovered that my ability to remember names and faces wasn't lost after all. Once I moved back to an area with a large population, there were plenty of social occasions to "jog" my memory after initial introductions. Unfortunately I needed to move again shortly afterward, after not finding work in the middle of the recession. That also involved a return to a lightly populated area, but by then I had discovered a way to keep remembering names and faces: the internet.
Even though the internet isn't a substitute for decades of relationships in working (and social) environments, regular online routines go a long way to fill the gap. As a result, being online provides more familiarity and regularity, than casual acquaintances whose names I'd write down and yet too often still forget. Indeed, this post was sparked by a conversation on the walking trail this morning with someone who - while we've traded hellos and some conversations in recent years, never exchanged names. Often I find myself wondering if younger people have changed in this regard, because when I was younger, exchanging names seemed an automatic part of casual relationships.
Inspiring as online communities have been for me, I still hope that local communities can regain new meaning through better economic networks. Perhaps the best way to regain those connections is to seek coordinated scheduled interaction with others, across a wide services spectrum. Sure, it would be awkward at first, because communities have been going in the opposite direction for so long. Still, I believe doing so would be worth the effort.
Communities could reconnect by moving beyond the limits of present day public education, which has presented an arbitrary cutoff for social engagement especially in small towns. We no longer need to come together to distribute knowledge, for the digital realm does this quite well. Rather, time spent with others needs to become about utilizing the concepts of knowledge, instead of just continuing to disperse them. By integrating education with the fabric of daily life, knowledge use would become a part of total recall. And by bringing local relationships back into the economic mix, we might once again live in communities where we know the names of our neighbors.
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