We Are Memory

Photo by Soragrit Wongsa on Unsplash

You have a name, and your name is known.

I know myself, my relatives, friends, and enemies.

My own existence and of others is all related…

Life is not just a series of events, it is the memory of those events that makes it what we call as an event.

Complex …let’s get it further knotted.

If all goes blank, remembering not each other’s name, nor their past, and not even the concept of time in their life, what remains?

Nothing.

Memory…

is what hold records, the huge library inside our brain, that is like the oxygen for all our life happenings, recording all the life events and everything we see and live around us.

Existence can seem nil without memory.

Without memory, there is no identity, no relationship, no known friends and colleagues.

We exist because we remember and are remembered.

The truth is that without memory life as we know it and live it would dissolve into nothingness.

Our own and identities of others, relationships, and the feel of reality around us are true and tangible mentally because of our memory.

Memory is unseen but profoundly powerful.

Life and existence are inseparably tied together by memory.

Without memory, there would be no ‘me’, no ‘you’, no relationship, no history, no future, just a present living moment breathing in the Cosmos.

Identity first

Who am I without memory?

My name, my personality, and my beliefs are all shaped by what I remember. (Or what others remember about me)

So my memory has given me a name,family, friends, occupation, and more.

They all hold essence and a meaning because of our memory and of others.

A person suffering from amnesia and loss of memory is not living a life like mine. They may look in the mirror and not recognise the face staring back.

Identity is not in the flesh or a person’s appearance, but stored in the chambers of the mind as memories of the onlooker. So the onlooker recognises me because of his/her memory of me.

Thus a person with a loss of memory doesn’t recognise me.

With memories we now live a life to call our own. I have an identity.

Without the ability to recall past experiences, there is no continuation of thoughts, no judgements made, no reflections, and ultimately no growth, maybe just a growth, change and ageing in the physical body.

Thus memory is not just a record of life, it is life.

It is the backbone to know a life. My own and those around me.

Relationships

You love someone, a parent, your spouse, or your lover. Why do they matter to you? Because you remember sharing good moments, conversations, and emotions with them.

Your memory is the thread that knits them all together, making you feel them special in your life.

Relations vanish if the memories are erased or a person suffers from memory loss.

History, culture, and traditions are all preserved and held by cosmic hand through collective memories.

Laws and progress are directed and shaped by events that have occurred in the past.

Until Death Sets Us Apart

Death has all the ingredients of being forgotten. But some people still live through their works like books they’ve written, progressive work they’ve done, and simply by having children to name them as heirs.

They might not have a life of immortality in physicality, but surely have their lives screened forever, thanks to the memory.

Same Situations and Their Two Outcomes

The morning sun intrude waking me up early on a Sunday morning. Besides me was still unperturbed unlike me, was my wife with small sounds of snoring, I smiled remembering last night, she was high with the effects of strong spirits and she balancing the half filled glass on her head as she performed her one leg dance.

I walked into the kitchen and in ten minutes my wife was awake as I had the cup at her bedside filling the room with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

The sunlight had Mr. Chauhan awake.

Whose she? he asked himself on seeing the woman sleeping next to him. He then hurried out of the room and had entered the kitchen, and there he sat on the dining table holding the empty ceramic mug and he tried smelling inside the mug, searching the aroma of what was written outside the mug… Coffee.

Mr Chauhan was suffering from Amnesia.

Emotions Attached

When we say we are missing someone, we truly mean is that we are missing the person’s presence, the voice, the laugh, the warmth of their words and hands.

We laugh, we cry and are sad and get nostalgic of all that is hidden and then displayed by the memories we store of persons and events.

Mrs Clapton tells her grandchildren bed time stories that was told to her by her own grandmother and the characters in the story were the young Prince and a poor but beautiful girl who were still young even after eighty years on Earth had passed away.

Mrs Clapton was ninety years old now but the characters in her bedtime stories remained always young, thanks to her memory.

Everyday Living

A child will not touch the plate when off the oven, as once he had burnt his tender hands with the hot plate.

The driver slows down at the dangerous bend in the road, he told me later he drove at this road for more then fifteen times now.

All effects of memory were playing in the above events.

Mrs Julian, a senior colleague at my work had resumed work after a month as she had lost her husband who was suffering from Alzheimer's for the last ten years.

She told me “I lost my husband not last month but many years back”.

He was living physically but he was dead.

He wouldn’t recognise me, his charming nature and the brilliant sense of humour were all dead. Birthday’s, Anniversaries, Parties were like from the past cherished now in photographs and memories.

We live in a fast paced world. Our life move as if with tyres.

We are not just living beings, we are remembering beings.

Our past as seen by our memories is not behind us, it is carried within us, it lives inside us, influencing our every step, moulding and shaping us and our thoughts.

Memory is to connect, to stay united, to dwell with other lives and those around us.

Let memories connect all the dots spread in our lives to reveal the image that our life has produced.

Memories are as essential as a heart to the living body, if in doubt, spend an evening listening to Mrs Julian who felt her husband was alive just physically but dead in essence for a life, minus his memories.

Cherish and Thank Nature, You have it in you, Memory (for now)

Tomorrow is another day…