Random Thoughts on Recognition

How do YOU recognize people?

Most of us rely on the usual clues - face and voice recognition. I have often heard someone say "I never forget a face." My neighbor, P, admits to recognizing people by their walk.
"Yes, I know her, she 'teeters'."
"Teeters?" I ask.
"When she walks she just 'teeters' from side to side. I would know her walk anywhere."
There are four of us who walk together every morning at 6 a.m. P is able to alert us to people she sees coming. Long before we have made out faces or recognized voices, P has determined who they are by their distinctive gait. This is not a totally foreign idea to me as I do notice very distinctive gaits of people, but have not carried it any further in my recognition processes. Some gaits, such as that of a former nurse manager, have been SO distinctive that I have tried to replicate them in private just to understand how they could possibly be produced.

If you are having difficulty remembering things, maybe you have just not found the right medium for you. Several years ago, I learned that our minister's wife remembered telephone numbers by their musical tones. She was very gifted musically and found it much easier to recall the musical tones in the telephone number than to remember the number itself.

Perhaps these are just examples of people making better use of their senses to interact with the world around them. Is 'intuition' just our subconscious reaction to subtle clues in the world around us? Have you ever dissected an intuitive thought?