Have you ever noticed how soon we 'forget' things that we're used to seeing every day once they're no longer part of our daily experience? Not that they disappear from our memories completely, but when they're out of sight, they tend also to be out of mind - until that is, something (a photo, an aroma, a word, etc.) reminds us of them - or we see them again. So "What exactly are you talking about?" you may be wondering.
Well, as I sit here typing this, I'm also casting my gaze around the room and seeing little bumps or indentations in the ceiling which have been there for as long as I can recall. Yet, 35 years ago, when myself and my family moved to another house, I pretty soon (if not immediately) 'forgot' all about them, even though they'd been a familiar part of my life on a day-to-day basis for 11 years. Not that they were constantly at the forefront of my thoughts or consciousness, but I was aware of them on a subliminal level at least.
Then, when we moved back to this house after four years, upon seeing certain things again, I immediately 'remembered' them (or perhaps 'was reminded' of them is a better description). For example, when we first moved into this house in 1972, there was a long crack in the plaster of the ceiling in a corner of the room I'm now in, which had been caused be the weight of the water tank in the attic above. The previous tenants hadn't fixed it, we hadn't repaired it, and the subsequent tenants hadn't seen to it either. It wasn't until around 30 years after we'd moved back (last year) that I finally attended to it, and all that needs to be done now is for me to paint the ceiling for the former blemish to be totally invisible.
Also, when we resided here the first time, my brother affixed his heavy metal posters to the wall with a stapler. When I was papering the room around a year ago (a mammoth undertaking that took me many months, a bit at a time), I noticed that quite a few of the staples still remained in the wall. I could have removed them, but decided to leave them where they were and simply papered over them. (I actually tapped them into the wall for a closer fit, so that they wouldn't protrude through the new wallpaper.) The thought that these staples may well remain there forever to mark our first stay in the house appeals to me in some strange way.
As I've said before somewhere, not thinking about something is not quite the same as forgetting it, but the result is similar - it's like forgetting. However, all we need is a trigger for a particular memory to burst forth anew, as if it had been hiding behind a tree and suddenly jumped out in front of us, shouting "Hi, remember me?" - and we do.
So let me ask you - have you 'remembered' something recently that you thought you'd forgotten until you remembered it? If you can understand that, you're impressively sober for a Friday night - so feel free to tell your 'fellow Mellows' all about it.
Also, when we resided here the first time, my brother affixed his heavy metal posters to the wall with a stapler. When I was papering the room around a year ago (a mammoth undertaking that took me many months, a bit at a time), I noticed that quite a few of the staples still remained in the wall. I could have removed them, but decided to leave them where they were and simply papered over them. (I actually tapped them into the wall for a closer fit, so that they wouldn't protrude through the new wallpaper.) The thought that these staples may well remain there forever to mark our first stay in the house appeals to me in some strange way.
As I've said before somewhere, not thinking about something is not quite the same as forgetting it, but the result is similar - it's like forgetting. However, all we need is a trigger for a particular memory to burst forth anew, as if it had been hiding behind a tree and suddenly jumped out in front of us, shouting "Hi, remember me?" - and we do.
So let me ask you - have you 'remembered' something recently that you thought you'd forgotten until you remembered it? If you can understand that, you're impressively sober for a Friday night - so feel free to tell your 'fellow Mellows' all about it.
Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Talking to someone about my age a while back we got onto things that our separate schools used to do, like leaving milk for the students in crates out on a rack (and not refridgerated!). Now I'd forgotten about that until he mentioned that, and of course you bleat out, "I remeber that", when in truth you clearly never forgot it but it may never have crossed your mind for years, decades even. That segued into other school practices like ordering hot soup in the Winter and being let out of class five minutes earlier than the other kids to collect it from the canteen. Liked the soup but also liked getting out early. It's all in there, in that database we call a mind, but it takes an anectdote to act as a search request to bring it out. We do a trivia quiz at the office, some of us sitting around the tea table at afternoon break, the designated Quiz Miss reading the questions out from the the newspaper, and the things you knew but didn't know you know amazes me sometimes. Info that had passed through your senses, some of it retained, some of it not. I have zero interest in sport so you could ask me sporting questions all day and I wouldn't have a clue, but other areas of interest it's a different matter. Amazing place the brain, it's like the stuff is all in there, a tad disorganized but still in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThat's it exactly, PC, very nicely put. Even memories we could once remember, but now seem unable to, are probably still in there, but what we've forgotten is how to access them, not the memories themselves. (That's my theory anyway.) Same effect as forgetting of course, but as you say, it's still in there somewhere. Glad someone could make sense of my semi-incoherent ramblings.
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