Memories

Recalling memories works in a very weird way for me. Well, I'm guessing this isn't normal, as I've never heard someone else mention it, but I wouldn't presume to be unique.

My memory works with triggers: something I see, something I hear, something I smell... When a trigger reminds me of something, I instantly remember how I felt at that moment.

Which is something else that's interesting about my memory: it's a feeling, not a picture or a string of words echoing in my ear, or anything else that would, presumably, be more tangible.

This means my recollection of something could be highly subjective. Well, anybody's is, but possibly even more so, because depending on how the snippet made me feel, it could be viewed, in future, from a perspective that wasn't at all accurate, because my reaction may not have been accurate. (You know, like getting offended by something when the person didn't mean to offend.)

Anyway... You know how a song or a specific scent can make you remember specific feelings? When I look at a picture, I tend to associate the feelings of the time with the scene. Now I'm getting to my point...

Recently, we went on a fun and amusing trip. I went without a camera. It felt very odd not having a camera, as I've come to associate remembering pleasant things with being able to capture them in a photo. It's a (very easy) way of expressing your appreciation for beautiful or interesting things: even the worst photographer can capture a scene that will say to you that they saw or felt something of interest, because it was worth photographing. And you might even be able to pinpoint another person's point of interest, looking at the picture (which is why I stand by: posed photos are simply uninteresting, my face hasn't changed, why take them?). So not having a camera initially felt very handicapping.

I'd been reading about writing, so I started to wonder if I could capture my memories just as well (or even better, since I'm the writing sort and not a photographer) with words. But it takes so much time!! You can't sit there and write a paragraph or poem (aherm) about a scene that caught your interest, but you _can_ take 3 seconds to photograph it. Besides the fact that people are much more likely to scan through 50 photos in 50 seconds than read even one 50-second paragraph about something. (And forget expecting anyone to read _my_ longwinded-ness, harhar. Oh well, again, some day when I'm old and have nothing better to do but read over my own stupidity... to remember how I feel... as I write this... aaahhh...)

So, I resolved to "capture" the trip in writing. In short groupings of words that will, hopefully, trigger enough for me to recall the scene in some sort of detail, enabling me to recount it, later, in writing. Much as you would put a caption under a photo. I have some "notes". I intend to use them. Someday.

There are many things related to writing that I unrealistically intend. Non-literal reams, in fact, of jotted notes to self about fascinating topics to pontificate on. It's a shame, really. But since I have no photos of this trip, I just may have to resort to writing about it, over time.

Maybe I'll find it to be an approach that will stick.