For numbers, for complicated passwords, for remembering how to tie my laces .. I thought I was set.
Unimportant facts drawn from dusty fantasy books in water-damaged carboard boxes at the back corner of old bookshops. Yo.
Living through the memory of equipping that first augmentation in Deus Ex, of taking down an entire level with the mini-crossbow, of trying so very hard to take down Gunther. Aye.
For my desktop and laptop I had used the same semi-complicated password that contained all sorts of characters (a hash, and possible a colon). I had used them for at least six months, I think more (since the upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit.
Two nights ago I was absolutely embedded in code and development process that I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing when logging in. Not one bit. Not even to glance at the keyboard a tiny little bit.
And all of sudden, after restarting my laptop, I couldn’t log in. My fingers didn’t remember the exact pattern. My brain didn’t remember the characters I’d so carefully gone over and over again and again.
GONE.
This scared me. I’ve known for a few years that my body is gradually wearing down, even at the youthful almost-mid-thirties that I’m currently experiencing, chronologically-wise.
But my memory! Hasn’t that at least got a few decades before it starts to go?
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 3:5-8
Cut to the heart. At some point, my joy in being able to remember things had altered my perspective away from the clear Word of the Almighty.
Be not wise in your own eyes. Ouch.