The most memorable hour I spent in my psychology class at Valparaiso University was all about forgetting.

We were told that were were going to study forgetting, and to do that, we could think about anything — as long as it wasn’t polar bears.

So that was fun, letting my mind go off and play for a while. But eventually, the professor said “Have you forgotten about polar bears?”

If you’re the least bit like everybody in that class, dear reader, you just groaned. The words “polar bears” brought the animals immediately to mind, didn’t they?

The professor didn’t let it end there. He said that he didn’t know when we’d all last thought about polar bears before class, but now this would be a better measure — from that first question in class to the next time we got checked on.

So off we went, thinking about anything except you-know-whats. It all went fine, but then a certain time went by and we all heard another question: “Have you forgotten about polar bears?”

That was when we knew it: Forgetting can’t be forced. I’ve had to turn off the radio already this morning, Sept. 10, because of all the almost-20-year-old stories being talked about. I will keep busy today to ward them off a little longer.

So I will keep busy as much as I can today and Saturday, the 10th and 11th.

For one thing, my curio cabinet needs cleaning up.

I want my polar bear figurines to be front and center.