Mindsweeping for Safekeeping

What if you could selectively deposit your memories in a place to keep them safe and to free up your mind for other, perhaps more pleasant things? I just learned about a “pensieve” in Harry Potter book #4, “The Goblet of Fire.”

In this chapter Harry stumbles onto a shallow stone basin containing a strange substance and emanating silvery light. It just happens to be the pensieve where Dumbledore deposits his memories.

There are many clever things in these books, but I find the pensieve to be one of the best. Instead of ruminating on scenes you would rather forget for the present, you simply draw them out on a silver strand from your head and deposit them in the pensieve.

I’m just at the point where Harry comes face to face with Lord Voltemort, so it is rather hard to put the book down. However, the day was so perfect that I simply couldn’t resist a long walk around Chautauqua, where my husband imparted the secrets of his photography class, often bemoaning the fact that my camera was just not quite good enough to get it right. Here are a few random shots from my walk. They include:

-- The cow down the street

-- A first ride on a bike without the training wheels

-- The remains of a black-tie event

-- The local Episcopal Church

-- Me in my new brown Tee shirt

-- A guest lecturer in the Hall of Philosophy

-- He always did like doing rabbit ears on unsuspecting victims

-- Lake Shore Drive
-- Two views of the Bell Tower from the porch of The Atheneum


-- The amphitheater just waiting for the next performance