My family calls me a finder. They lose things, swear they have looked everywhere possible, and whatever it is that's missing is gone, gone, gone forever. More often than not I find it. Usually within a few minutes of beginning the search.
I once asked, if this makes me a finder, does their persistance in losing things make them losers? They weren't amused. I didn't mean it in a bad way and it seemed like a logical question.
While I don't claim to have an eidetic memory, I do think I must have a better than average (at least for my household) ability to remember where I saw an object. I think of it as a learned survival skill since none of us are especially well organized. That, combined with questions about where they were when they last remember having the missing object (while they insist they already looked in that area), usually results in me finding what they lost.
Maybe I should have encouraged them to do more of the Highlight's Hidden Pictures when they were younger. Because, really, finding things is mostly a matter of observation. And a willingness to actually look for something...including looking under and around other things (especially in a house with kids and cats...the first piles things on top of other things, the second knocks them down).
Posted by marybeth at March 12, 2007 01:19 AM Family