When does one know when to let go of a memory? Is it a learned skill? Or does it just fade away like a dream you try to, but just can't, remember? I held a 1 week old baby today and I wondered, "Who held me when I was just that old?" "Who oogled over me to my mother when she brought me in public places?" Though impossible to remember, it's worth thinking about.
People you meet today or even tomorrow, will be remembered by us in their past, as we know them now. It's automatic that we've known them as they are right now as they were all their life! Take for instance, a beautiful, successful person you meet today and learn that their entire upbringing days were lonley and torturous. Even homely and poversed. You don't believe them. Do you? Like the baby I held today, I'll remember her twenty years from now as the baby I held twenty years ago.
On the reverse side to that..Faded pictures of ancestors, sitting proudly as they look back at you from cracked images, seem to us as though they remember 'us' as we are 'now'. Though impossible, we still think of it that way!
Good memories, we of course cling to. However, there are different versions of them as time goes by. We talk about them when the opportunity arises, yet each time there's a little more to the story. Is this because we feel we may forget and if we add to it a 'fresh' portion, it'll make it last that much longer? Yes, there are christmases, loves, childhood even pet memories that we all share. But, what about bad memories and times? Who gets to let go of those? Should we? Sould we hang on to them for learning purposes? If so, why can't we let them fade away if and when we've learned from them or even taught other's...and try and NOT save them as we would a good story we add to over time?
It makes me wonder which has the stronger hold...a good memory, even if we have to add to it...or a bad one that jumps into your mind at any given moment while you secretly agonize for a chance to relive and reverse it..or, like being held as an infant, are never, ever remembered or even spoken of at all?
Is it all chalked up to innocence, experience or ability? Maybe it's all of them. P
