The old saying is “Life is short.”
While in a true sense of time and the world and the universe and everything else, that’s totally true, the realization is life can be long in some parts.
Throughout life, we make many memories. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are a little of both. Life goes through phases, too. You are young and a child; a teenager; an adult; middle age; retirement etc.
And I’m not a scientist and I can’t say I truly understand how the human brain works, but the reality is most people aren’t going to be able to lock away years and years of memories without anything fading.
How many of you truly remember your childhood.
I have some memories, though they are spotty. I remember little things, like adventures and such. But there are many details I can’t recall. Others, I have pieces of what happened, but the rest has faded over time.
But what do you forget? What fades? It can be a mix, of course. In life we have to deal with loss and death. We get to experience joy with births and marriages and things like that. We get the times where we feel lost.
All of those aspects create memories.
Certain memories, when you don’t get to relive them often, start to fade.
For example, I still remember the smell of my grandmother’s house when she was cooking. She was an Italian lady and when she cooked – she cooked.
But other things – my father’s voice, for example, are harder to still hear, to remember. Fading memories is what they’ve become. I feel, at times, I can remember the sound of voices of people who have passed, but most of the time it’s distant and hard, thus a continually fading memory.
There are a lot of memories I wish would fade, but they stick with me. There are things in my childhood that make me have a hate or a severe dislike of certain times or people because of how they played part in making my life not so fun as a younger person. These memories can often be vivid and easily seen.
But friends and family who have passed on, sometimes those memories fade. The smiles, the advice, the sound of their voices – fading away.
It’s part of how life is.
It’s different now, though.
Technology helps us as a society have memories that may not fade. Digital photography, voice recorders, videos, etc. All of these items will allow people have memories from different parts of their lives. I’ve probably taken more photos of my godson/nephew in his two years on earth than were taken of me for most of my childhood.
It’s a different time.
Selfies and quick videos will allow people to document different things as well as keep records of what people looked like and sounded like.
Whether that’s good or bad is something that will likely be debated for many years. The human mind will continue to work as it does and there will be ways to trigger these fading memories.
It’s a different time now than when I grew up, that’s for sure.
Fading memories happen. It’s a way for the mind to be able to store more memories. In time, some memories fully fade away and that’s part of life. Embrace those memories of yours that don’t fade as they will hopefully allow you to smile and know that life is a wonderful place – most of the time!
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I totally understand what you are saying! Sometimes I wonder why I can’t remember certain things, or am surprised when something triggers a memory I thought was lost. What have I done over my life. Yes, I remember the big things, but some of the finer details have blurred. Sometimes we are left with just the feelings as the actual memory fades. It seems like loss is the last to fade.
This post made me dream about my childhood memories which is actually not usual for me and even it’s not easy to think out of some thing else because of the really busy schedule of the daily life. But I realized there were many incidents that I still able to recall and quite amusing as well. And it’s true that these were fading memories but merely recalling them from the sub conscious mind helped in sketching them again. I would like to conclude by saying special Thanks to the P.J. for opening up with this tale of silence.
Thanks,
Harsh S.
Harsh S. recently posted..Core Java Quiz Online Test – String Handling
Thanks for the kind words. A busy schedule can definitely make it hard to remember some things, but definitely worth trying to find a way to remember the good things.
Sometimes I wonder if the sheer volume of photos that are taken these days will obscure memories and future generations will have the same memory issues. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Kathy M. recently posted..1-2016
I guess I can definitely see both sides of this coin. You make a good point. Hopefully the photos will help people remember the good times. We can hope, anyway!
One of the things I worry about is losing some memories that my parents have at their house. They have hundreds and hundreds of slide trays, filled with photos. We didn’t have photo albums until much later. All of our early childhood is preserved in slides. Hard to look at those on a regular basis.
What I need to do is get myself a good slide scanner and start taking it over to their house and scan tray after tray until I have them all digitized. Some of those memories will still be faded because we won’t remember where the shot was taken or who was in it, but at least I’ll have my early years preserved.
Paul recently posted..A fading memory
You definitely should get those slides turned into digital images. Would make a cool thing. Then maybe turn them into a photo book so you can have them, as well as something you can give to your kids.
That’s a very good idea.
Paul recently posted..Life’s turning point
Thanks, Paul!
You are so right about how we lose our memories over time. I know my childhood was eventful but I can’t recall any details.
They’re vague memories that barely scratch. I know that there was a lot more stuff going off in my head and at the time I thought i’d always remember those events and times. Now I’m older it’s fading fast.
I have a few snapshots and my mum has kept her Black & Whites, but the best bits weren’t even recorded. It doesn’t compare to todays technology and social media.
I try to keep a personal writing journal and jot things down which happen to me, which are quite odd sometimes. I really wish I still had my teenage secret diary, I never knew what actually happened to that.
I think a lot of us are in the same boat when it comes to things like this, that’s for sure. I know I did things during my childhood (for example, a trip to Florida I have no memories about), but at the same time there’s not a lot to document these trips. Things get lost over time, including memories and photos. Hopefully, generations will be able to link up and tell the story!