Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCLXXX

When a baby is born into an English-speaking home, he will learn to make sounds that babies born in other parts of the world will never learn to make. By the same token, those born in those parts of the world can make sounds that you and I will never have the ability to make. Even if we learn to speak their language, we will be unable to mimic the exact sounds that come so easily to those who learn those languages as small children. Here's the reason: When we are born, our tongues and vocal cords have the potential to make many different sounds, many of which are never needed in speaking certain languages, but when we never use our organs for that purpose, the muscles needed to make those sounds never develop and become useless.

That information is something I picked up in one of my social studies classes in college, and I stored it somewhere way back in one of the tiny crevices of my memory; then last week I was thinking about a totally different topic, and that long hidden piece of knowledge came floating back up to the surface. What was on my mind was how I used to take pride in just how many phone numbers I had stored in my memory bank, and now that smart phones have completely taken over our methods of communication, I don't even know my own kids' phone numbers. There's no longer a need to memorize phone numbers...our phones do it for us. Then my mind went another direction: I've been singing in church since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and at one point in my life, there is no telling how many songs I knew by heart...every word. When we learned a praise chorus or a choir song, we learned it....completely. We didn't look at a book or a cheat sheet, but now that all the words are posted on a screen for everyone to see, I don't have to memorize a song any more. We have two big screens for the congregation to see, and then there's one on the back wall that's there strictly for the singers.

Now don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining. I love the new technology, but if they were to suddenly take away the big screens and the mobile phones, it would not be a problem for me to go back to the way we used to do it, because I developed that part of my brain when I was a little boy. Here's my concern: Will the children born today develop the ability to memorize phone numbers, songs, etc. the way I did? If technology does all that for them, will that be a part of their brain that never develops and ends up becoming useless? I don't know, but I do wonder about it. Every generation gains more knowledge than all the ones before, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be that way. I know there will be so much for them to store in their memory, but I'm not sure that "remembering" and "memorizing" are the same things, and I'm wondering if the "memorizing" part of their brains may never develop the way mine did.

I can still recall the words to more of the old songs than I care to admit, but when we're singing the newer songs, which I love, incidentally, I still have to look at the words. At first I just attributed it to old age, but now that I think about it, I believe it's because I never had to memorize the new ones. One other point: I can't hit the high notes like I used to either, but I still attribute that to old age. All I need now is a new idea that debunks that theory as well.

Preston