Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to memorize something that is worth memorizing. Committing
Speaker 1: a meaningful passage or poem to memory will help you
Speaker 1: appreciate it more and make it accessible to you at
Speaker 1: any point. Education has obviously changed a lot over the
Speaker 1: past one hundred and fifty years. Kids used to need
Speaker 1: to do a lot of memorization. I always enjoyed the
Speaker 1: scenes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books of her at
Speaker 1: about age fifteen memorizing a long passage about history and
Speaker 1: reciting it for the townspeople. I know that my parents
Speaker 1: growing up had to memorize the Heidelberg Catechism as part
Speaker 1: of their religious studies. We do a lot less memorizing
Speaker 1: these days, which in some cases makes sense. We have
Speaker 1: the technology to call up just about anything anywhere, at
Speaker 1: any time. But even if we don't need it as much,
Speaker 1: the human memory is truly an amazing thing. You might
Speaker 1: think you don't know many things from memory, but if
Speaker 1: I played the opening chords of a top rated song
Speaker 1: from some random year you were in high school, there
Speaker 1: is a high probability that you could sing most of
Speaker 1: the lyrics. I'm also guessing you know a great many
Speaker 1: Christmas carols by heart. Those tend to be songs people
Speaker 1: sing repeatedly. When you know something by heart, it is
Speaker 1: more accessible no matter the circumstances. You don't need to
Speaker 1: rely on notes, or internet access or anything else. That's
Speaker 1: why I committed the various versions of my time management
Speaker 1: speech to memory. If I'm there, the speech can happen,
Speaker 1: whatever the screen situation, whatever the room looks like, whether
Speaker 1: there's a podium, if the power goes out, if my
Speaker 1: laptop died two seconds before, it's not a problem. When
Speaker 1: my family gathered for Christmas this year, we could just
Speaker 1: stand around the kitchen singing carols. No need to hunt
Speaker 1: for songbooks or anything else. That is the beauty of
Speaker 1: knowing things by heart. So why not try memorizing something
Speaker 1: worth memorizing. You'll get to know these words better and
Speaker 1: stretch your brain in a new way. If you follow
Speaker 1: a particular religion, there are no doubts sacred passages associated
Speaker 1: with that faith. Why not choose one that speaks to
Speaker 1: you and aim to be able to recite it. You
Speaker 1: could also try a poem. Visit the Poetry Foundation's website
Speaker 1: and find a reasonably short one that feels special to you.
Speaker 1: Or you could watch YouTube clips from poetry slams and
Speaker 1: see which poems people tend to perform over and over again.
Speaker 1: Those might go well with memorizing. Or you might choose
Speaker 1: to memorize something just because it's fun. I memorized a
Speaker 1: few stanzas of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven years ago
Speaker 1: because his word play is just fantastic. Once upon a midnight, dreary,
Speaker 1: while I pondered, weak and weary over many a quaint
Speaker 1: and curious volume of forgotten lore, The internal rhyming scheme
Speaker 1: keeps the beat moving along. There are lots of strategies
Speaker 1: for memorizing things, but generally you need to read it
Speaker 1: over many times and then check if you can recite
Speaker 1: parts of it. You will have to check to remind
Speaker 1: yourself if you were accurate. Eventually you'll remember certain words
Speaker 1: that begin a phrase, and then the phrase itself tends
Speaker 1: to make internal sense, so that part will be easier.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people make lists of the first words of phrases,
Speaker 1: or even just the first letters to jog their memory.
Speaker 1: Then eventually you just practice enough and it feels easier.
Speaker 1: The more time you give yourself, the more clear it
Speaker 1: will all be. The good news is that if you
Speaker 1: have things memorized, you can always entertain yourself no matter
Speaker 1: the circumstances, or you could entertain others if you are
Speaker 1: suddenly called upon to perform in a talent show. Now, granted,
Speaker 1: that is not likely to happen, but there is something
Speaker 1: fun about a challenge. Our brains could probably use some
Speaker 1: more exercise. Memorizing isn't easy, but it is also something
Speaker 1: that the vast majority of people could do if they try,
Speaker 1: So why not memorize something worth memorizing. What you memorize
Speaker 1: is always with you, and if you choose well, you
Speaker 1: can make your internal brain landscape feel a lot more rich.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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