Memory is such a flippant thing. And recollection is worse. It's tough to find 2 people who remember an incident just as it happened. In fact, what actually happened, and what could be recollected by the above 2, would be 3 different things altogether. Imagine, if it were so easy to recall things, it would make the work of policemen and evidence gatherers much easier. Because then they'll be able to get matching testimonies to an event much quicker. It'll also be easier to settle disputes, transactions, return favors and what not.
But keeping the practical applications aside, this fickleness of memory lulls us in to a sense of delusion. Remember the saying "distance makes the heart grow fonder". It's precisely because of our inability to recall events exactly as they happened. The brain automatically adds frills and ribbons to the reality at each instance that we think about it. Hence, a person who is far away looks that much nicer in retrospect than he/ she did in actual presence.
This false sense of exaggeration of something that happened in the past makes us either remember it with sharp positive or negative feelings or to forget it altogether.
So, how do we know what was (or what now seems) so important to us is also equally important to other parties involved in the event? What if we remember something with fond memories and the others have totally forgotten about it? That must have happened to you at some point in time. When you share something and the other one says "That's not how i remember it!"
More importantly, who knows what actually happened... in a world where your own mind plays tricks on you!
But keeping the practical applications aside, this fickleness of memory lulls us in to a sense of delusion. Remember the saying "distance makes the heart grow fonder". It's precisely because of our inability to recall events exactly as they happened. The brain automatically adds frills and ribbons to the reality at each instance that we think about it. Hence, a person who is far away looks that much nicer in retrospect than he/ she did in actual presence.
This false sense of exaggeration of something that happened in the past makes us either remember it with sharp positive or negative feelings or to forget it altogether.
So, how do we know what was (or what now seems) so important to us is also equally important to other parties involved in the event? What if we remember something with fond memories and the others have totally forgotten about it? That must have happened to you at some point in time. When you share something and the other one says "That's not how i remember it!"
More importantly, who knows what actually happened... in a world where your own mind plays tricks on you!
1 comment:
Sup - i have always had the same thought about what distance does. it really does exaggerate how you remember a person and the times!!! And then there is the disappointment of reality!!!
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