Memory

Time is a funny thing categorized into segments of past, present, future. John O’Donohue in his book “Anam Cara” says, “Yet the amazing fact is, this day vanishes. When you look behind you, you do not see your past standing there in a series of day shapes.” What an interesting thought.  What if we did? What if the present is a time of building, and the future a space we are planning for our new day shapes?

Time travel stories often are built around changing something – typically in the past. Even future time travel stories are less about observation, than acquisition of something to change the “past” to which one returns.

But we don’t see day shapes standing there like some sort of Easter Island landscape. If there was, would we be tempted to revisit them, maybe smooth a rough edge a bit, add to a beautiful part, or remove something all together? And if we did, would it actually change the day shape? Or when we turned away, would it remorph back to how it originally stood?

O’Donohue goes on to ask, “Is there a place where our vanished days secretly gather?…I believe that there is a place where our vanished days secretly gather. The name of that place is memory.”

Memory includes but is not limited to events in which we participated.  It also includes stories of events that we have heard about but weren’t a part of, pictures we have seen of places we have never visited, feelings, expectations, dreams. The puzzling thing is when memories “change” – when another detail is added or deleted or recontextualized. Did the memory change or did our view of the memory change?

In databases, there is storage of knowledge. But not every user has access to the same elements and thus may have different views of the same piece of knowledge. Perhaps the same is true of memory, especially shared memories.  The same memory is there but the view of it is different, similar to the differences in how eyewitnesses “remember” an event. If we walk back to a memory – to a day shape – can we see more or less or something different? When we share day-shape stories with others we are able to see more or differently if we are open to receiving.

I was once asked why historical perspective was important. My response was that it gives us a basis from which to move forward. But shared historical perspective or memory can also give a more complete picture and greater understanding.  It can also lead to healing if it doesn’t just involve picking at a memory scab or fondling a grudge.

With apologies to sci-fi fans everywhere, maybe time travel is really about memory.