Sporadic Diary

February 19, 2011

I was looking for a document in my house the other day and, although I could picture the document in my mind and knew what kind of folder I had placed it in, I couldn’t for the life of me remember where it was.  Like a squirrel searching for acorns he buried, I went from room to room, floor to floor, opening draws, flipping through files, and hunting in my favorite storage spaces.  No luck.

After about a half hour of this, I started to get really frustrated.  I sat for a few minutes and tried to go back in time in my mind, seeing if I could retrieve the last activity in which I handled the lost document.  Unfortunately, that was a waste of time.  The only thing that happened was that I realized I was hungry too and so I made a sandwich for myself.

After my lunch, I resumed by search, this time vowing not to overlook anything.  I removed the draws from my dresser and sifted through each one.  Nothing.  I laboriously scanned every file in the steel filing cabinet in the basement.  Zilch.  I emptied several boxes of old reports, notes from my early work years (circa late 1970s), and prized publications.  Nada.

By now I was beginning to lose my mind.  And I wondered: Is this what squirrels feel like when they go hunting for their nuts?  Do they do the same things I did?  Do they follow a systematic search plan?  Do they pause, sit on their haunches, and try in their minds to retrace their steps when they hid the nuts?   Are they even capable of doing that retracing in their tiny little minds? 

Finally, after spending some time contemplating the behavioral characteristics of squirrels I concluded that I had indeed lost my mind.  So, I gave up my search for the elusive document (did I really need it anyway?), and decided to go to the gym.  On my desk was a T-shirt I like to wear working out and when I picked it up, lo and behold, there was the dumb document, like the purloined letter, hiding virtually in plain sight all along.  I didn’t cry out in exultation.  I didn’t thump the heel of my hand against my head in exasperation.  No, I just stuffed the T-shirt in my gym bag and headed out the door, like the whole episode was no big deal.  Is this how squirrels behave once they find their nuts?