What do we lose when we forget?

READING glasses. According to zero scientific studies, the loss of essential and life-saving glasses is the number-one cause of suffering and disaster in my house.

To lose them when they are all but glued to my temples is one thing, but how they are to be found is quite another. If I’m not wearing them, how can I see where they are?

The Cats’ Father, who seldom comes in for any praise, is heroic in these situations. The panic of no-glasses sets in and I end up circling the same table for whole minutes on end.

I don’t only see with my glasses, I also think with them and they help me to maintain what little balance I have. The Cats’ Father makes me tea and then sweeps the house until they are found. Far too often, under a cat.

Of late, I’ve been doing a lot more in the line of not-forgetting work. In part to keep track of glasses, books, keys (which are certainly possessed of supernatural qualities) and shoes.

The other part has to do with the memory of people and things. The easy symbolism of my parting ways with my eyewear is too easy.

Vision, perspective, balance – yes, universe, I get it. The only thing I have going for me is that my far vision is better than the near. I won’t soon lose sight of what is in the distance.

Carnival is over for now, and with its end, so too the end of all those conversations about who is important, whose legacy should be preserved, and which traditions are disappearing. Those should be year-round, full-time conversations. We have institutions that lay claim to this work, but libraries and universities don’t always have the funds to be keepers of memory. I know because I ask.

This is an old problem and an older story. It has been covered by people far more qualified and empowered to talk about it.

Dear Eric, money may not be the problem, but fair, considered disbursement is.

And that’s for the things that are easy to see. Mas traditions, visual art, endangered plants, inventions, and archaeological finds. And just because they are easy to see does not guarantee their safety.

Then there is the world of the invisible. There is a world of researchers, writers, academics, professional collectors and private individuals with a terrific knack for holding on to things. When we ignore or fail to care for what they leave behind, what are we taking away from ourselves and our future selves? Vision, perspective and balance, that’s what.

It's been a little over two years since the death of Gordon Rohlehr, professor emeritus of West Indian literature. Rohlehr did not invent calypso, but he is the line in the sand that differentiates rigorous, disciplined study of the artform from reminiscing about the good old days. His Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad is the foundation on which we stand. That’s the book everyone who thinks about him remembers, but that is not the extent of his thoughts on our culture and society.

He continues to listen, to look and to make accessible various translations and interpretations of our us-ness – of where we have been and where we’re heading – across ten other books.

People keep telling me that writers of note (your Walcotts, Lovelaces, Naipauls) will always be more famous than researchers. Why, when research is just another way of setting off on a great adventure of exploration? Darwin, anyone?

Rohlehr’s magnificent papers are not the only things we can lose or lose sight of. And it will not be solely because the best institutions for safeguarding such material are ill-equipped or under-endowed. It will be because we are a forgetting people.

But we have to not be that. Recently, I was lamenting that the Trinidadian rock stars (really, the amazing bands and performers who came up from the late 80s to yesterday) all seem doomed to obscurity. And I realised we were talking about a particular phase, but also – simply – a way of being. Why are we so comfortable with letting go of the people and moments that shape our world?

From too many conversations, all I’ve gleaned is this: it’s easier. We’re good at compartmentalising. Lose a book or a loved one. Forget a friend or your dream of having a great stamp collection. If you don’t think about it, you don’t feel the loss so keenly.

Remember to talk to your doctor or therapist if you want to know more about what you read here. In many cases, there’s no single solution or diagnosis to a mental health concern. Many people suffer from more than one condition.