“Memories light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories of the way we were…”
In my own life I have a plethora of misty water-colored memories, some good, some not so good; we all do. Some of us have faded color slides that we may or may not have had digitized to scroll across our computer screens. Some even have 8mm soundless movies that record our early years and those things our parents thought should be immortalized, like picnics with our cousins or a visit to the Grand Canyon. The latest of our generations have high definition smartphone photos and videos that capture every blemish (until you apply the edit function.) But mostly we have those misty memories where pain isn’t remembered because “we simply choose to forget…” and even digital recordings cannot remember pain or anger or even happiness.
Still, whether in black or white, high definition or 3D there are images that tell us stories and when you add sound, well, the story becomes even more memorable. No longer misty or water-colored these memories are now objective history and should school us but alas, they do not. It is strange how the human mind works, just as we cannot remember pain or the depths of despair because we choose to forget, too often we cannot accept that which is staring us in the face from our TV’s, computers or smartphones. It is history in HD, color, and sound but we continue to deny it.
They play an older video clip, the person says something, it’s right there but some say it has been manipulated, but they didn’t say that when the clip was live or almost live news. The person denies saying it and many believe that person even though the evidence is right there in front of them. Why? What is it in the human mind that denies the truth? We believed it the first time we saw it but now we choose to deny it. Why? And once again the answer is, Emotion. We choose to make our decisions with our “hearts” rather than our “heads.” We don’t want to believe the truth because it can be painful and we choose to avoid pain wanting our lives to be misty, water-colored memories rather than stark, realistic portraits.
“Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line…”
“What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget”
“The way we were”
What do you think?
Common for bad memories to be repressed.
I guess I am not always sure that the way I saw it then was the way it actually was. I am talking personal memories now, not historical. I can remember thinking I was so right emotionally but now when I remember it in the light of other experiences I have had, I am not sure I was so right at the time. But maybe it is just that I don’t have the same emotional interest in the way it was then.