that reminds me of byron randall
byron randall was the name of an online friend when i used to spend a lot of time on a photography forum a few years ago.
just a few days ago i was trying to remember the name of a friend of mine from about 30 years ago. his first name was also byron. i still cant recall his last name. and ill tell you why. everytime i bring the name byron up into my consciousness, immediately randall pops up along with it. i am completely unable to recall any other last name that goes with byron except randall.
and there is NOTHING i can do about it. byron randall is stuck in my mind forever, and it prevents any other byron from coming up in my memory.
now i know thats not an exact parallel, but just gives one some indication about how perfectly harmless things can enter your mind unwittingly and prevent other things from entering.
the Mussar seforim speak about this. the more a Yid takes the World to heart, the less room there is for HaKodeshBorchu. and im not even beginning to talk about the pollution and damage from shmutz