use it or lose it...
you've heard it before. it's a saying at least as old as jesus and it doesn't really matter what the subject is, whether a special talent or some fancy toy (why is my mind straying?), but apparently if you don't employ whatever "it" is, you will inevitably forfeit any command of it. right now, for example, my mind is feeling particularly foggy, and i can blame it largely on the three-hour nap i took after work today (it always takes me for-freaking-ever to wake up), but it made me think about how my mind really hasn't been as sharp as it was when picking apart jane austen (e.g.) some three years ago when i was in school. and what have i done with my mind since then? numbed it up nicely with hourly jobs such as dipping chocolates or making sandwiches. and i'm suffering the consequences now as i try to write clever plots and end up giving it up for another day.
another thing i've lost with disuse is my voice. i started voice lessons while in high school, and by my senior year my parents were forking out $60 an hour for lessons at the local liberal arts college. it paid off, too, when i got an $8,000 scholarship for voice my freshman year in college which i threw away by transferring schools. i still kick myself a little for that decision, but for the major i wanted it really was for the best. the following year i made a cd and sang for church a couple times, but that was the last time i really ever sang in public. my range in full voice stretched just over three octaves, which is pretty good (some people are lucky to have one octave, most have around two), but now i'm barely getting more than two out of it, and i won't even get into breath support.
as i was writing this post i also googled the phrase "use it or lose it" and the first thing that, er, popped up, was this article from the los angeles times. now fortunately i don't have to worry about that one yet (...or ever, really), but i found it interesting still.
makes me curious, though -- once lost, can something be found? do you think i have a chance of ever regaining my razor-witted mind? have you noticed anything in your experiences that you might have lost due to neglect? do you want it back?