Our memory is like our life story in our heads (kind of like a huge scrapbook, photo album, or video album of our lives). We are defined by past events or memories because those experiences have shaped up to form who we are today. Life without memory would be extremely hard to imagine. You would have no recollection of who you are, where you are, what you are doing, and who you are with. Even when watching the video of Clive Wearing, I could not comprehend how he could not remember things. I was surprised that he recognized his wife, yet thought he had not seen her in several years. I am also surprised that he is still a great musician and conductor! If I were Clive's wife, I would become extremely frustrated because living a normal life with my husbad would be extremely difficult. I would have to do almost everything. Despite this, I would stay with my husband because I pledged my love to him and he is really the same person, just with no memory. I can't even imagine what I would do in a situation like this. After watching the video, I feel very fortunate to have memory. As I think back to all of my life experiences, plus what I have learned, I feel that my memory capability is extremely huge! I can't believe a person could store a lifetime of information in one little spot!
I look at the way we interpret memories very differently than I did before. I now find the concept of memory much more complex and extravagant. Such that by making links between familiar things to new things, the new things are much easier to remember, as was demostrated in the first memory exercise I performed. I do not see my memories differently, but I think about them a lot more. For example, a few years ago I lost a very special necklace. I had given it to my gym teacher to hold on for me because I was afraid it was going to get broken during class. I forgot to get it back from her after class. A few days later, I asked if I could have it back, but she told me that she had already given it back to me. At that time I knew that she didn't, but as the months and years went by I constantly question if she actually did and I'm the one who lost it.
One significant concept that I learned in this chapter was forgetting. I forget a lot of things. I easily lose train of thought and forget what I was even going to say or do. In this chapter I learned that forgetting can actually be a good thing: A way to rid your memory of "junk." This is important to me because I now find myself appreciating my forgetfulness because I would not want to be like the Russian memory whiz S, and remember everything! I would be much for frustrated with that problem. I can apply this to my life by realizing I must forget things to be able to retain more important information. In this sense I have become much more understanding of myself.
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I really like how you said that our memory is like one big scrapbook. I never really thought of it that way but it makes complete sense. I also think that forgetting some of our memories is a good thing. If we didn't forget some of our memories than we would have a lot of information just sitting in our heads and we would be able to remember it all. I honestly think that if i remembered everything that happened to me and others around me i would go insane. Some things we just have to forget about in order to try something new and to be able to have fun with our lives.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you lost your necklace, but that was a perfect example of memory. Once something occurs, it is hard to remember the exact events if you weren't all that observant. Everytime I think of memory I think of the movie 50 First Dates. It is a prime example of what we are learning. Instead of Clive wearing, it is 10 Second Tom. I can image living my life without memory, or even watching someone live like that. I love most of my memories and they are too valuable to even conprehend what Clive and Tom go through.
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