Remembering what we’re prone to forget

There is a movie called “The Vow”
that helps you understand the how
of making love stand up to loss
when life comes crashing down.

When you’ve forgotten what you pledged
(and once-felt feelings can’t be dredged),
you have a choice of what to do
and what you choose is key.

Amnesia is a dreaded curse
but it (with time) can be reversed
if day-by-day you reenact
what won the other’s heart.

And if you do, you will recall
the blessed wonder of it all
Two people joined as one for good
no matter if life’s bad.

* Actually, the plot of “The Vow” deals with the true-life events of the Kim and Krickett Carpenter and the resulting dementia that Krickett experienced after a car accident. What I am attempting to address in this poem is the tendency many couples have to forget what they promised their mate at the front of a church on their wedding day. Admittedly, that’s a different kind of memory loss, but a damanging kind of forgetfulness nonetheless. Gratefully, marriages that experience “dementia by inattention” can be restored through reprogramming daily behavior and choosing to act lovingly (even when romantic feelings are dormant).

** The plot of the movie is best explained by going to the following website:
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/interview-with-kim-and-krickitt-carpenter3/