I asked my AI friend, Claude, if it’s known why we remember some things – and not others. What’s amazing isn’t that what Claude replied, but how Claude said it. Someone remembered to include the “diplomacy” subroutine.
I have photos on my kitchen wall. I put them up as a passive aggressive response to someone who didn’t seem as interested in my family memories as their own. An unintended outcome is that its a reminder of how photos can really help keep memories alive.
This wall also reminds me of photos and memories I don’t have. For example, you remember my getting a certificate of merit (speeding ticket) on our drive to the Monte Verde Inn for our dinner before the senior prom. While a totally believable event, I can’t for the life of me understand why I don’t remember getting that ticket.
You recently came across an old snapshot of you and your young daughter. I think you mentioned that you found it while sorting things at your mom’s home. The memories enabled by this photo surely brought joy to your mom – and others.
Of course we have no shared memories of the decades we were apart. Maybe the telling of our stories, helped with the aid of old photos, can stitch together a remembrance we can share.
Today or attention is focused on the future. The life we may live. The new memories we may acquire.
It didn’t take much research to find Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s words: “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers.” Now why didn’t I think of that?