Word: remember

To remember is to be mindful again. The word is Latin re- ("again, back") plus memor ("mindful") — and the re- is doing real work: it does not say "hold in mind" but "hold in mind a second time," call back what had gone out. Built into the word is the gap that remembering crosses — the prior having, the lapse, the return. You cannot re-member what never left; the word assumes the forgetting it…