Driving into work this morning, I saw a fire truck coming down the road in the opposite lane. There were no flashing lights, or blaring sirens and the truck was pretty much moving with traffic. It looked like the truck was going back to the station after a call, rather than heading to an emergency. As it drew closer, I noticed something moving behind the truck. At first I couldn't figure out what it was. After staring at it for a moment or so, I realized it was a fully extended fire hose that hung from the side of the truck to at least twenty to thirty feet behind it. The hose was trailing behind the truck with the nozzle bumping around, in a crazy dance, as it struck the pavement. The cars that followed, began swerving and moving strategically to avoid running over the wayward hose. It was an unusual sight to say the least.
I laughed out loud. What struck me in that moment, was that it looked like something I would do! I imagined myself as the firefighter assigned to rolling up the fire hose after a call. I would have had every intention of doing my job, but something may have distracted me on the other side of the truck, opposite where the hose was hanging down. Out of sight, out of mind. I would have hopped onto the truck and gotten settled in my seat, totally unaware that the hose was left outstretched on the ground. As the fire truck drove down the highway, I would have wondered what that funny noise was and would have chalked it up to some imperfection in the road. When we pulled into the fire house and discovered the length of damaged hose, I would have been in shock, seeing the evidence of my forgetfulness and realizing with a sinking stomach, that the responsibility was mine and I totally forgot.
There is some strange comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one to forget to do something both important and obvious. I can be pretty hard on myself when I forget to do something or when something turns out badly because of my forgetfulness. I deal with daily reminders that I have to be more aware of my memory limitations - it's not that I don't want to do something, it's just that it doesn't get done. Most days it's things like a sour load of laundry in the washing machine that I forgot to shift over to the dryer or fully intending to make a phone call or making an appointment. Luckily, I have back-up for most of the essential things I'm responsible to remember. It's a necessary part of my support system and one that will keep me from a public display of forgetfulness like that fire hose announcing some poor fireman's goof-up.
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