Mystery Solved with a Fond Memory

 Surely, you all have some random people, places or things that momentarily cause your mind to think of other persons, places or things totally unrelated.  We used to play free association word games where someone would say a word and you’d reply with the first word that came into your head.  Though we unconsciously freely associate words far more often than we notice, there are some things that we might realize we are associating if the word is before us often enough and we think of the same thing each time.  Such is the case for me with the word, “Namaste.”  Wiki shows the derivation and meaning of the word here.

I don’t think I knew this word before I was introduced to it on Gather a few years ago, and I don’t remember associating anything else with it at first, except the meaning I found when I referenced it.  However, after seeing it several times over several months, I began to associate the word with a handlebar mustache.  When I consciously recognized that this was happening, I just dismissed it thinking that the reason for the recurrence of association was because I thought of it once, and I was remembering that each time I saw the word.  But that is not the case.

Last night, Jerry Kays used the word once again, and I actually told him what it reminded me of, but that I didn’t know why.  This time, however, it caused me to think about it more, and it suddenly came to me. Many years ago, a few months before I left for college, my mother had met a woman whose 12 or 13 year old son, Roland, was mentally challenged.  Roland and his mother were at our house for dinner a few times, and I also remember another day when Roland was with us alone while his mother attended to other things. Roland developed a little crush on me, and I was very fond of him too. We probably spent, all-tolled, 7 or 8 quality hours together over these few months.

When Roland liked something he was eating very much, he would twist his thumb and index finger at the side of his mouth and say,” amaste,” indicating that he loved what he was tasting. I was told that this was an action that imitated the twisting of the end of a handlebar mustache to indicate that pleasure along with the word.  For so many years I had forgotten about Roland and this action of his and now I’ve remembered. Thanks for bringing back a fond memory, Jerry.