The Irony of Worrying (true story)

Years ago when I was in high school, I recall an incident where I had been worrying about something, got distracted, and forgot what I was worrying about. My mother, seeing my scrunched up face, asked what was wrong. “I can’t remember what I was worrying about,” I replied. She then said, “Well, if you can’t remember, then it couldn’t have been that important.” Sure, easy for her to say! Ignoring my mother’s seemingly inane advice, I went on for most of that morning trying to back-track my thoughts. For whatever compulsive reason, I felt I had to pin this one down. After all, what if it was important? How could I be so reckless to just forget about it? Finally by lunchtime it came back to me: I had been worrying about wasting time!