Memories

When we are forgotten, we cease to exist.

- The Lady of the Lake, in Merlin (film)

Ever stopped and thought about how much you remember from your past?  Your elementary classmates? Your teachers?  What it felt like to be a kid? What it was like to change, age and grow up, not necessarily in that order?

Our lives are made up of countless moments, some we experience on our own, some we share with others.  But only a relatively few of these moments are immortalized in our memory, and then some of these few we'd much rather forget.

There's no sense in living in the past, but living in the moment without a history doesn't make sense either.  How much you know of someone is proportional to how much you remember of that person.  So loosely speaking, as time goes by and memories fade, relationships would fade too.  And when you grow old and your memory of your past deteriorates, could you still say you know exactly who you are?

In thinking of this I realize the value of taking photographs, of writing, of telling your story.  These things immortalize moments and experiences that you would have come to forget. They could put into order your otherwise disorganized memory, and anchor you to the reality of your history.

But more than that, this shows the value of having friends and family when it comes to memory. Chances are, most of your life's moments were spent with these people -- they would remember things about you that you'd have forgotten.  They would know you  in a way that could be different from how you knew yourself.  They link you to your past. They remember you.  They remind you of who you are.