Fear of the (Previously) Known

When you remember things, your brain interprets the memories and then re-stores those memories, only it stores the re-interpreted versions. Over a (not so) long period of time, a memory can undergo the psychological equivalent of a game of telephone and by the end hardly resemble the original occurrence.

When a memory is stored in the first place, it is first filtered by your brain's interpretation. Not one memory is raw perception. Every thing you remember and know is shaped by how you perceive, both at the time of perception as well as when you remember.

What is possible, then, is for the capacity for an emotion at the time of perception and storage of a memory to be different than at the time of remembrance. In other words, there are memories that you can't comprehend at certain valleys of emotional fortitude.

This poses a fascinating problem: Does the recall of a memory with a strong emotional content at a weak emotional state result in the destruction of the emotion present in the memory? In other words, can you forget by remembering?


Writing is an invention that allows humanity to pass information throughout the ages. It is by this invention that we know the works of Homer, Shakespeare, and have the Bible to this day. The correlation of literacy to the elevation of civilization is constant and parallel. Writing's main purpose, though, is not to aid in remembering. It was created so we could forget. We write things down so we don't have to retain it. The words don't change or alter throughout time. They are the same today and will be in a thousand years.

I wish there was a language for the soul. I wish I could remember by forgetting into a medium that could contain my emotion. Then I could safely remember without the fear of losing dear memories. There isn't. I can't.

I've been trying not to remember so I don't forget.