Jottce

A person’s name is in a way the interface between the very personal and the public, the official. When people address me by my name, my heart goes out to them, especially my first name. Here in Germany, people tend to address one another by last name and that establishes a different kind of relationship and creates a different feeling. Still, even in the most cursory and meaningless context, the name adds the sense of belonging and being there. My problem is my horrible memory for names. I hardly ever address people by name either because I’m afraid I’ll use the wrong one by accident or because I don’t remember the person’s name at all.

So the solution would be to make a conscious effort to remember people’s names. One of my strategies is to find photographs of people and attach them to my address book entry (on the Computer). That makes it a bit easier.

…I don’t really know how to achieve this as a goal. I exercise, do weight training for my back, but I catch myself hunched over 50 times a day. I’d be interested in hearing how other people are going about achieving this goal.

Writing a book (nonfiction in my case) is painful, but utterly rewarding and exhilarating.