Sunday, October 19, 2008
Memory
The way we remember things is fascinating to me. If I had a lot of money and a lot of time on my hands, it would be something I'd love to research. I have a theory that we don't really start remembering things until we start talking (as toddlers, around age 2). Then as we progress and mature, memory is enhanced and compounded with other senses, sound, sight, smell. There have been times in my life that were extremely stressful, and it was all I could do to get through one day at a time. Those times I have very little memory of. Maybe it's the mind's way of protecting itself. Then other times a certain smell will bring back long-forgotten memories so vivid I feel like I'm re-living that situation. Other times I will see something (usually a photo of someone) whom I had forgotten about, and suddenly a flood of memories will come back associated with that person. It seems that as time goes on, people tend to look back at situations that they may have thought were horrible at the time and think 'it wasn't so bad' and remember those times fondly, or at least remember the people fondly. I think our brains filter more than we realize, and that for the most part, it's a self-preservation instinct.
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2 comments:
Interestingly enough, I remember bad stuff far easier. Then again, I am far more of a negative person than you :)
It's funny, there are periods in my life where I have to work to remember anything. And then I do have a memory from when I was either two years old or slightly younger, when I saw my mother get stung by wasps, and I cried, seeing her in pain. Of course, my folks thought I had been stung, seeing me bawl, and stripped me and checked me for stings. That one stands out as my first "coherent" memory.
And like T.H. Elliott, I remember the idiocy I've done, ugh.
But most of my memories are relatively good.
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