Meme Defined

Stanislaw Lem and Douglas R. Hofstadter write about ideas. What happens to them? They are hidden away on pages bound in books and shelved.

But they live.

They enter you through your eyes and join the shimmerimg myriad of ideas careening around your mind. And sometimes one will really connect with some others. It gels. You get it. Other things make sense now. Something clicks and bells go off and you get a flash of insight that modifies the way you look at the world. Or some aspect of your job becomes easier. Or you sort the silverware piece by piece as it goes in the dishwasher so it is faster to put it all in the drawer.

That is a meme.

They are big or small but always useful. The usefulness makes them memes. It helps them grow. Someone sees you sorting the silverware and they go home with the meme too.
Memes can multiply as well as grow. The silverware sorting may create connections in someone else's mind about an efficient way to do something else. Some chore they connect but one you don't do, like milking a cow.

By the way, that song you can't get out of your head is not a meme. It is just annoying when you burst out with "Birds fall from the windowsill above mine..." three times a minute.