This post is certainly long overdue. How often have you heard someone saying something and in the next instant, you suddenly find yourself immersed in a moment of enlightenment and are filled with endless inspiration for the next blog post? The ideas come crashing violently like an avalanche but that will be the exact moment when there is nary a laptop/electronic gadget nor a piece of paper and a pen around for you to record these precious lil 'nuggets' before they slip away.
Not being able to jot your ideas down is one thing, but not having the TIME to actually string these ideas together in your blog is another. When you finally do get to sit down and type, all the beautiful phrases you once had in mind disappear into thin air. You are, then, left with a writer's block.
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| Calvin's idea of a Writer's Block |
... but I digress ...
... but maybe not, since the subject of this entry is on MEMORY, after all.
I seem to notice a strange obsession with the powers of memory in at least two recent TVB dramas. In one of these series, a traffic police officer has an excellent mental storage known as her memory palace in which she is able to visit and recall every minute detail about encounters she has had with practically anyone. She is nothing less than a human computer who can even mentally record the file number of each case.
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Speed of Life
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In another drama, a private investigator does the same. She is able to travel to the past (albeit in her mind) to look for clues which she may have missed out initially. Both women managed to solve many cases thanks to their extraordinary memory.
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| Eye in the Sky |
Perhaps it is a coincidence that both characters are female. But then again, perhaps it is true that women do have better memory, and therefore, have better excuses for holding grudges. ;)
Well, I am a woman but sometimes I can have the memory of a potato. I may climb upstairs to my room or stand with the fridge door ajar and not remember what I had wanted to get from there in the first place. That is why I have learned a very useful skill in life: CHANTING my way to my destination. Granted, it is only applicable under 3 special conditions:
a) if you wish to retrieve only ONE item
While it is acceptable to chant, "salt, salt, salt, salt, salt" till your hand is safely wrapped around the salt shaker from across the table, there is no way for you to chant your entire shopping list. That's already singing a complete song, and you may end up with enough materials to produce an album.
b) if your destination is not too far
Even if it is just one item, you cannot be chanting "bread, bread, bread, bread, bread, bread," as you drive 7 km to TESCO.
c) if no one distracts you along the way
Remember the story of the dog that lost its precious bone after barking at its own reflection in the water? The very moment you open your mouth to speak to anyone is the exact moment when your memory spills out.
I often chant "Orange, orange, orange, orange, orange, orange ..." until I reach the refrigerator. I have also gone "phone, phone, phone, phone, phone" all the way to my room. Then there are times when I come out of my car and go "wallet, wallet, wallet, wallet, wallet..." If you do not know me, you will certainly think I am a wacko.
In fact, now that I have blabbed so much, I have forgotten the main point of this particular entry ...
I have to admit: Our memory is a very strange thing, indeed!
If my memory was that good, I would have aced every exam in school. The truth is, I have forgotten my fair share of important historical dates, scientific facts, grammatical rules, and mathematical formulae. Birthdays I can remember; anniversaries are not a challenge, but useful and important information? Nah, no way. Let's just forget about it.
Yet, I seem to have quite a peculiar collection in my personal memory store. The more nonsensical and trivial the information is, the more vividly I tend to remember. These are merely the tip of the iceberg:
i) I vividly remember refusing to walk down the aisle as a flower girl for my aunt's wedding when I was only 4. There was dry ice all over and I thought the adults must have been crazy to insist that I walk through what seemed like a 'smoky fire' to a 4-year-old.
ii) Embarassingly, I only started weaning myself off the milk bottle when my parents forgot to bring the bottle along on our very first trip to Penang. I was almost 5 then. I wailed so much but was too disgusted (and maybe even too egoistic) to accept my aunt's offer to use one of the bottles that belonged to a kid she took care of.
iii) When I was in Standard Three, one of my classmates misspelled Port Dickson as 'PORK Dickson and was reprimanded by our class teacher (who usually drew 'swimming pools' in our exercise books after drifting to sleep while marking). For some strange reason, our teacher was wide awake that day.
iv) This same best friend of mine had to literally sew me up in my pinafore when I was 11 because the zipper had given way.
v) When I was 14, the lady who sold fruits in our school canteen had commented that the natural colour of my hair was too light and had predicted that my entire head will turn gray ere long.
vi) One of the things I have brought home with my very first salary as a promoter was a big bag of Washington apples from Tops Supermarket.
All these information are non-beneficial. They cannot be exchanged for money nor can they be used to edify anyone. Even so, I think they will remain in my memory for a long time.
I do not only remember stories about myself but also about other people. For instance, my now teenaged godchildren, nieces, and nephews love to hear stories about random things they have done when they were only little babies or toddlers. I suppose their parents were too preoccupied taking care of them to take note of such insignificant facts.
It amazes me to think that I can forget important things but have such clear memory of other unimportant events. When I was flipping through one of the psychology textbooks a few years ago, I came across a very interesting term which may just explain what I am blessed with: a rather good episodic memory. Now don't ask me what that means. I cannot recall proper facts from textbooks, remember?
Sadly, this memory works as a double-edged sword. Along with all the warm, touching, encouraging, and funny anecdotes, I also tend to have equally good retention for bad memories. I recall the first (and hopefully last) time a person slapped my face (and for what reason). I recall my Standard Six PE teacher scolding me and commenting that my 'muka macam lembu' (face like a cow). I recall a boy in the school bus calling me a 'fatso'. I remember how a conman cornered me when I was barely 18. And many many more hurtful things that have happened all these years. Try as hard as I might, these things cannot be eliminated from my storage. If I had a giant eraser in life, these bad memories would have been the very first things I wish to erase. You see, they serve no purpose except to relive the pain and humiliation I felt at that time.
There is some consolation, though. My memory is starting to deteriorate with age. A case in point: I used to be able to remember all the 129 names of students from one of the Foundation classes. Now? All it takes is just 12 students to confuse me throughout the entire semester.
A classmate thinks that we should meet up more often to share these crazy stories of our childhood. My university roommate once said that I should occassionally remind her of the silly things we used to do while staying together. Former colleagues always enjoy talking about our fun-filled office days over a simple meal. Cousins laugh at each other's quirky habits as little children.
Sometimes I wish I could record all these down in writing, but it is somewhat impossible because as time passes, we generate even more memorable instances. We can only hope that the memories we generate each day will be sweet and memorable for the times to come. To quote Charles Swindoll, "each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Even when a person is long gone, memories of him/her lives on.
With that, I wish that you have a great week ahead filled with wonderful memories for the future!
