Jumper Cables for Your Brain

Every day you learn something.

Using what you learn -- or even remembering it -- now that's a different subject.

The term for the day is "potentiation." It's a brain science word, part of a high school summer studies course. I am not a high school student, a brain scientist or even the least bit science-savvy. But sometimes moms get called on for tasks outside the comfort zone.

After studying Wikipedia, here's what I think about "potentiation": It means powering up inside your brain. That makes sense. Potent means strong. Omnipotent means all-powerful. Impotent means weak or useless, lacking power.

This "powering up" can happen when drugs add power to the nerve connections -- weed smoking or ecstacy can take you there.

But the cool thing is that "powering up" happens at other times: when you are excruciatingly happy, or exhaustingly sad. When you are horribly embarassed or irrationally frightened.

Emotions power up the nerve endings in your brain and make things unforgettable.

I remember the turqouise color of the vinyl hospital bench from 15 years ago. I was napping there, my cheek stuck to the vinyl, when Dr. Fitzwater came in to give me my child's diagnosis -- kidney failure. I remember the resident standing beside him, the way my husband nudged me and even the words "you might want to hear this." I remember the shape of the room and the way my mind started racing frantically. I remember the nurse interrupting to say my mother-in-law was calling.

I remember Christmas morning from 45 years ago at my grandmother's house. The presents, a Chatty Cathy doll and a Dr. Kildare medical kit, were positioned on the deacon's bench underneath the picture window.

I don't remember football plays or baseball scores. No emotion -- or even pain, I guess -- in that.

I definitely don't remember phone numbers, gate codes, usernames and passwords.

But dulce la leche cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory? Man, I remember that!

Emotion creates the memories to give us hope.

Or hold us back.

Now what was that word for the day? "Potentiation." Use it with power.