Bikes and Memories

Now that the weather is nicer, I decided I would start each day with a bike ride to the local marina and back.

As a kid, I was an avid bicyclist. I would think nothing of a twenty mile bike excursion.

Cycling became more the exception than the rule as I moved into adulthood. The trips shortened from extended excursions to cruising the neighborhood.

This morning I was again struck by the fact that, even though it had been nearly a year since I was last on a bike, I remembered how to ride without the slightest falter.

So if I can remember how to ride a bike after a one year hiatus, why is it I can't remember where I left my reading glasses twenty minutes ago?

This morning I remembered that my right hand works the rear brake, but Saturday I couldn't remember what that one extra item was that I needed at the grocery store - the item I didn't write on the list because, duh, it was just one item.

Perhaps the memories built during childhood are longer lived because they are more momentous.