New Avenue of Thoughts re Memories in 2020
- May 26, 2020, 10:22 a.m.
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- Public
On the theme of memories increasingly floating back to me as this pandemic extends, and that I am approaching my 79th birthday new and welcome thoughts occur. And on the theme of this boost in memory of the past being possibly a function of aging, I was reminded that some have always seen memories of the past being a comfort to the old, guiding and being a comfort over the years. I believe that having led the life I did, I’m fortunate most of the memories that occur to me, stimulated by something in my life now or something I read or am told, those memories are usually really endearing.
I’ve been amusing myself by pronouncing random nouns and verbs and even adjectives…I say the word aloud, and see what personal memory connects with it. So far, not one word has not connected me with a personal memory. This intense exploration certainly does put a new light on the loss of an elder’s memory. Can I extrapolate that we are our memories? I think it isn’t far from that. I remember Dad’s loss of who mom was after her death and when his frontal lobe dementia was in full flush. He never forgot his mom but when he saw his late wife’s photo as a young woman he commented that he remembered that girl but she didn’t hang around long. They were married from 1938 –1992.
I want to cherish my memories in this part of my life, and I have collected a mountain of them.
I need not tell my children all of them: I should remember that, but some they would want to know I can share. Without my memories as I experienced with my dad, a huge and absolutely essential part of myself that has been slowly developing over the past 79 years would be gone.
From what I saw with Dad’s life unfolding without essential memories he had always cherished, if these now gathering memories were to be lost, life would be lonely, tremendously lonely. I newly understand and I bow to my memories. They are the newly valued treasure that I have both consciously and unconsciously collected from early childhood to now.
Last updated May 26, 2020
Kristi1971 ⋅ May 27, 2020
They are definitely a treasure. :)
Oswego ⋅ May 30, 2020
This entry so deeply resonates with me. As you recall from the earliest days of OD, I have been preoccupied with the subject of memory, and now, all these years later, I am even more absorbed in this topic. “We are or memories,” you seem to be saying, realizing how vital is the essential ability and task of remembering and also, if possible, saving, restoring and recording memories whether in journals or in other creative forms of expression that draw upon our memories going way back into our pasts. This is why I’m constantly posting entries that rely on recalling the past and their associations, emotions, images and sounds (cicadas in summer, eg.). Sometimes all it takes to enable this is pulling a piece of paper out of a file box that was saved over the decades, each one of which was stored in little memory vaults for a purpose, that being the later recall of the events or circumstances that led to my saving that and so many other artifacts from which memories are resurrected. The past in a sense is dead without those artifacts that trigger memories because we can only recall so much without them.
Looking back on my newspaper writing days, it’s clearer to me why I was so interested in interviewing older people (I was in my 20s). I wanted to hear how they recalled their pasts, which told individual histories. This fascinated me. I realize now I was helping in a small way to record history as told through people’s lives. What a gift that was! Now retired and thinking back to those times when every day I was writing for publication, I am very grateful for all of those opportunities.
ODSago Oswego ⋅ May 30, 2020
Isn't it interesting how we were ourselves before we knew what/who we were? You write and share your thoughts so beautifully and thoughtfully, Oswego, I look forward to your publications in the future.
Oswego ⋅ May 30, 2020
Btw, a recent issue of Lapham’s Quarterly focused entirely on memory. Each issue deals entirely with one topic. I can’t wait to delve into it.
ODSago Oswego ⋅ May 30, 2020
Really? I don't know that Quarterly at all. I'll try to dive in too.
noko ⋅ May 30, 2020 (edited May 30, 2020)
Edited
I was reading a book this week and I noticed that certain passages were evoking memories, all sorts of odd moments back there somewhere. We are fascinating creatures but I also think we are much more than our memories, we have energetic and temperamental footprints too, but your point is well taken.
ODSago noko ⋅ May 31, 2020
So much to learn about who we are and how we function.
Jinn ⋅ July 07, 2020
Memories certainly are a big part of us . I think I am a crazy quilt !