Habits

"I know what that's going to sound like when I knock on it. I know that's what going to feel like when I pick it up. See? Certainties. It's the kind of memory that you take for granted"

"Sammy Jankis wrote himself endless notes. But he'd get mixed up. I've got a more graceful solution to the memory problem. I'm disciplined and organized. I use habit and routine to make my life possible."

In Momento, Leonard used Sammy's inability to be conditioned as a reason to reject his insurance claim. When Leonard suffers from the same condition, he relies on habits and physical memory in conjunction with the notes to function. When he shaves, he needs a note to remind himself to shave and where his shaving supplies are, but he remembers the action. When he drives, he can't remember where he parked his car or what his car looks like, but he can maneuver it. He knows the weight to the objects around him. He knows the physicalities.

Yet, can those memories and habits really be trusted? The habits our bodies remember are action-based and don't require us to think. We can remember the familiarity of our actions, but unless we are aware of a condition like Leonard's we don't really dwell on the miniscule differences. I put my cellphone about five inches from my bed. I'm used to it. It wouldn't disturb me too greatly if it were four inches or six inches instead. But it has to be on the left side of my bed, not the right. It has to be on top of the unsightly piles of work, not next to or under it. If I'm outside, it has to be in my right butt pocket, not the left of the front one. In moments when I slip my phone in my coat pocket, I get a jolt of fear when I mechanically reach to grope my back pocket and feel nothing. It's to the point where I don't feel the phone in my pocket because I'm so used to it. I just assume that it's there and it is, most of the time. But, habits like those can be easily confused and messed up when the body is out of sync.

Take for instance, brushing your teeth. Pretty simple task, right? Wet toothbrush, rinse mouth, squeeze toothpaste onto the bristles, start brushing, spit the foam out, rinse. You do it so often you probably don't put much thought into it. A couple of weeks ago, though, when I was sleep deprived, it was late at night and though the routine went smoothly, I ended up squirting face wash on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste. I didn't even notice a difference until I didn't get the usual minty taste. Sad, I know, but true.

What if Leonard is like that? We haven't seen him muddling up his habits, yet, which makes me suspicious. For a man with short term memory and only memories before the death of his wife, his ability to do use a gun or tattoo are too precise for a man that can't remember the familiarity of talking to the same people on a regular basis.