How do you feel about memory? Is it a blessing or a curse to you? Something else entirely?

I use my past to make art. Draw upon it for lessons of wisdom. Some of what I experienced, however, I have allowed to be a hindrance to my present.

I like what F. Scott Fitzgerald says at the end of The Great Gatsby.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

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BlueMetalChick · 26-30, F

My memory makes up a huge part of my personality. Without the memory I have, I wouldn't be me. I have a memory that almost too good for my own good. Whenever I'm not actively focused on doing something, my brain is like the random access function on a computer hard drive. I just start calling up memories of things in no particular order, and much of the time it's not even important or noteworthy or meaningful stuff. It can be as mundane as having seen someone with a cool pair of shoes at the hot dog stand two weeks ago, or a conversation about sushi that I had in a parked car at 1:00 a.m. with my best friend's father when he gave me a ride home three years ago. It's scary how well I remember things.

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BlueMetalChick · 26-30, F

@DanielChristensen: I one time scared my friend's dad by remembering the names of two friends of his who I met almost 12 years ago. I met them one time and then never saw them again, and he never even talked about them after that, but I perfectly remembered their names were Heather and Arlo. He got spooked by that.

DanielChristensen · 46-50, M

I've known since EP that you were very intelligent, but I also suspected since that time that the memory of hard experiences had left you with an inner rage and bitterness. It is good to be filled with fire. Though passive and gentile on the surface, I have a very passionate heart.

There are many hard times I would like to forget, but I do not know that would be doing myself a service. We need the wisdom of these experiences to survive in a cruel world. You know the old adage about what we forget, we are doomed to repeat.

BlueMetalChick · 26-30, F

@DanielChristensen: I would never remove my experiences of suffering. They've made me tough and given me a reason to fight everything I dislike.

SW-User

Sometimes I wish I have amnesia... but then I remember that my past helps my present and because of that I am what I am today.

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BlueMetalChick · 26-30, F

@Deleteyourself: I don't know. I've never fallen in love with anyone before and I can't judge how that feels.

DanielChristensen · 46-50, M

Woot A Halo player! Right on. I played all of them up to 3. I did experiments with the VI that were fascinating. In Halo 2 I was able to get ahead of the checkpoints and arrange weapons and obstacles. Then restart the checkpoints and watch the VI adapt. Seeing the programming adapt to new situations was like witnessing the birth of new realities.

DanielChristensen · 46-50, M

@BlueMetalChick: Falling in love is also a form of quite necessary agony. It has it's blissful moments too. Everything is magnified. It is transformative in ways that I could not describe better than the zillions of poets who have attempted to do so before me.

SW-User

Sometimes it's a curse when it's a painful memory, other times it's a blessing when it's about my kid or family and friends.

Jackaloftheazuresand · 26-30, M

I wish I could give myself amnesia in a safe way

DanielChristensen · 46-50, M

There would be definite advantages to that.

Invisible · 26-30, M

Memory is a liar

DanielChristensen · 46-50, M

I think you, me and Gollum can agree that memory is malleable and can be quite tricksy and false. I have trouble differentiating my age of 23 from the year 2003 for example, so sometimes I know I remember things wrong because of it.

beautyoutofsorrow · 36-40, F

More of a curse than blessing to me

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