Memory
This is unlikely to happen so let's create an approximation. Let's just say we could refuse to pay attention to our memory and go from there.
What would we have to go on?
Nothing. Just our experience of the present. Would that diminish our life or make it unrealistic or unenjoyable?
Conversely, if we had all our memories available to us, what might that lead to?
During that week, the woman learns no more about him. In the time that follows, she forgets what he looks like and most of what he had said to her. Only his number is the proof that she had met him. That, and a pleasant feeling.
What choices are available to her?
1. Trust the feeling and call the number.
2. Don't trust the feeling and don't call the number or even delete it.
3. Wonder whether she should call (that is, create a story in her head about it).
4. Accept the feeling as transitory and live the rest of her day.
Any of these choices are neither good nor bad but this hypothetical scenario begs the question: to what extent should we base our decision-making on our memory? And if memory and feelings are unreliable, what should form the basis of our choices? Memory decays and is also mediated by other experiences so that it becomes, shall we say, "refreshed" by them. Do I actually remember the time I sliced the tip from sister's finger with a spade or did my mother tell me about it later so that now I think it's my actual memory? [I'm joking. I did chop it off.]
Feelings are also notoriously fickle and if we choose to put our trust in them, we will live a life based on shifting sands. But, paradoxically, our strongest memories are encased in feelings. Without our feelings it's likely that we will forget.
I wonder what life would be like if we refused to rely on our memory? I wonder what would happen to us if we stopped dragging our memories into our present lives and living as if they were real? I wonder what our lives would be like if we left our memories where they truly belong - in the past?
What choices are available to her?
1. Trust the feeling and call the number.
2. Don't trust the feeling and don't call the number or even delete it.
3. Wonder whether she should call (that is, create a story in her head about it).
4. Accept the feeling as transitory and live the rest of her day.
Any of these choices are neither good nor bad but this hypothetical scenario begs the question: to what extent should we base our decision-making on our memory? And if memory and feelings are unreliable, what should form the basis of our choices? Memory decays and is also mediated by other experiences so that it becomes, shall we say, "refreshed" by them. Do I actually remember the time I sliced the tip from sister's finger with a spade or did my mother tell me about it later so that now I think it's my actual memory? [I'm joking. I did chop it off.]
Feelings are also notoriously fickle and if we choose to put our trust in them, we will live a life based on shifting sands. But, paradoxically, our strongest memories are encased in feelings. Without our feelings it's likely that we will forget.
I wonder what life would be like if we refused to rely on our memory? I wonder what would happen to us if we stopped dragging our memories into our present lives and living as if they were real? I wonder what our lives would be like if we left our memories where they truly belong - in the past?
The truth is that as soon as we bring a memory into the present, we create an illusion, because the event has already happened and therefore it's no longer real. We are living in our mind and not in the present.
It might be beneficial to stop and be silent in order to give the past the respect it's due and then leave it there.
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