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THE TELLING
. . . search and journey through memory
Monday Feb. 10, 2014
What is life about, and why is it interesting?
I was reeling off old stories last evening, reliving tumult and trouble times. After so many years, the telling is so much easier.
Depicting events, now so woebegone in their own moments.
Just another ream of detail to rattle off.
Listener might think it trivial.
I wonder if day will come where this teller of those stories could see them as trivial times?
Obviously, not simple après dinner stories.
Exact-detail mental time travel to places, standing in rooms where events unfolded – I could see upholstery, furniture and lights, recall who was around the table, who was impacted. And what was said.
Why?
How does that happen?
Time passing, memory’s kindness softens what once were blows – memory is stronger around overcoming those difficulties than that difficulty itself, memory of feelings and people are strong while memory of precise details, sequence of events get fuzzy.
Yesterday – in the morning, I’d forgotten something from the previous day. I knew it, knew what it connected to but could not pull it out of my head. Then I sat in a chair in the other room – and it came back to me. How do I explain this?
Is it a magic chair?
If I forget something I thought of yesterday, does that mean I’m getting old-timer’s disease or that it wasn’t important enough?
Questions like these have perplexed philosophers and ordinary folks for thousands of years. Answers are many – kind you typically expect about family, growth, advancement of humankind, to say nothing of myriad spiritual and religious rationale.
Still, we must find meaning, or what is the point?
Mark Kolke
199,168
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: -26C(wind chill -33C) / -14F, light overcast, very very cold – Gusta’s paws didn’t like it much either – car now warming up so I’ll be toasty heading out.
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
There are few things as powerful – remembering important things, whether they happened or not (Twain?). EC, Chicago, IL
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