Sieve

I had one of those moments the other day. I was listening to the radio while I was driving somewhere and someone (can’t even remember who it was or what they were talking about), said something that struck me in a way it had never done before. If fact, it completely changed they way I understood and thought about what had been a familiar phrase. It was a familiar phrase that I understood in a particular way. And, my best guess would be, you would understand the phrase, which you have heard many time before, in the same way I did. It’s not that understanding it the way I had was wrong. It wasn't . In fact, the way I understood it was the way it was always meant to be understood. So let me ask you this question: if you want to tell someone they have a poor memory, what phrase would you use to do so? If I was a betting man, I would put money on your answer being this: you’ve got a memory like a sieve! Am I right? I think so. And we understand why, don’t we? If you have a sieve, you pour something in which contains the things you really want. The idea is that what you don’t want drains out, and what you want to keep is left in the sieve. The reason we use it to describe our memory, is that all the fluid falls through the holes and is lost. So, when we say someone has a memory like a sieve, it’s a way of saying that they forget lots of things. It usually means that what we want them to remember is what they forget. Bottom line is this: when someone says you have a memory like a sieve it’s not a compliment. But here’s what I leant the other day. And, I’m not sure this was anything that was said on the radio, but it grew on me as I thought about it. I would actually like a memory like a sieve! What?…I hear you cry. Are you being serious? Yes. Yes I am. And here’s why. A sieve, whilst it does allow what you don’t want to drain away, it also keeps what is important. Think about it. If you are cooking peas what do you do? Your pour the boiling water containing the peas into the sieve. The idea, what you want to happen, is that the water (which you don’t want to keep), drains w away, and the peas (what you do want to keep) is caught in the sieve. So a sieve keeps what you want and lets go of what you don’t want. I would love a memory like that. I would love a memory that keeps what I want to remember, and lets go of what I don’t need to remember! And, reflecting on that, I would like to live like a sieve: I would like to keep what’s important, and let go of what’s not. It’s often said that when a crisis comes, you learn what’s important. The sad truth is that it often really does often take a crisis to get us to see what is important. We would do well to be more like a sieve. As I’ve stood at the bedside of my mum over the last week, it has caused me to reflect on life. It’s caused me to think of how we have lived as a family. I’ve been reminded that life really is fragile. I’ve been reminded that you can put off things that are important for things that, in truth, really aren’t. I’m wondering now how life might have been different if I had been more like a sieve, if I had been able to keep what’s important and let go of what’s not. And in all this, I’ve been thinking about a little verse in that not so well known book of Ecclesiastes. It says it is good to reflect on the truth that one day, we will die. It’s verse two of chapter seven. I like to say it this way: every dies and wise people think about that. I’m wondering that if we did that, we would be more like a sieve: we’d keep what’s really important and let go of what’s not. So, the next time someone likens me to a sieve, I’ll take it as a compliment!