My husband, Rich, lost his memory after he was hit by a car and suffered traumatic brain injury. In a moment of perfect clarity he once described his loss like this. “Pretend you are walking up the street with your friend. You are looking in windows. But right behind you is a man with a huge paint roller filled with white paint and he is painting over everywhere you’ve been, erasing everything. He erases your friend. You don’t even remember his name.” It’s terrifying. Because we are we without five minutes ago? What are we without our stories? Where is the continuum of consciousness? Is it all one big lily pad of a moment?
~ Abigail Thomas, Thinking About Memoir
Image: Street Art via mennyfox55
That must be so scary. We take our memory for granted.
Yes. Memory and many other things.
Very thought provoking… If we lose our memory who are we?
Yes. That’s the punch line.
😉
Like Steven King’s Langoliers…invisible creatures crunching up everything you left behind into nothingness,until you are crunched up, too. Frightening thought.
It is Claudia. And love your depiction.
be thankful for the countless blessings…one is memory other is value.
So true.
Such an interesting thought, “Who would we be without our stories, our beliefs, our lies? Maybe memory loss is the ultimate state of being “present.”? His description of memory loss is perfect.
If that is present, then take me away to not present.
Is that an avoidance of doing meditation? mmmm ha
Hmmmmm.
Ommmmm
And I thought I couldn’t sleep 5 minutes ago before I read this.
My father suffers quite a bit of dementia and I often think of how muddled and haywire his memories are. But they are there, even if all out of order and scrambled. To have them wiped, taken…wow.
Wiped. Wow. That about captures it…(isn’t it early for you in your time zone to be up?)
Yes, you are right…it’s way too early for me to be up in my time zone. I can’t say I’m really up, I was down and hoping to be back down again! 🙂
Down. Down. Down.
It worked! Thanks 🙂
My memory isn’t this impaired, but I did lose a huge chunk of time from electroshock. And I still have trouble turning short-term into long term memory, so I’d say I have a spotty paint roller behind me.
I’ve learned to write everything important down. Everything else goes. I do live in the moment. And I’m a great one to tell secrets to, because I never remember them.
You’ve taken me on full loop. Sad (electro treatment) to smiling to inspired on how to plow forward
Ah, my work here is done.
It wouldn’t be so bad if I got to choose which memories were painted over 😊
Genius!
wow, that must be overwhelming at times. while we all strive to live more in the moment, we would like to get here on our own terms –
So true!
Frightening, and yet such an interesting question, as we define ourselves so much by our past behavior and experiences. “I can’t do that because of ‘x’,” or “I’m sure I can handle that because of ‘y'” How to proceed without such guideposts, those silken threads that bind us. (and that image is a *perfect* accompaniment, DK, wowser!)
It is frightening Lori. So, glad that (today and hopefully forever) i don’t have to face this….
Potent thoughts… life without memory is death?
Gees, let’s hope not! 🙂