Of Memories

I’m the kind of kid that can’t let anything go. I got that line from a song I know I’m not supposed to like. It got me thinking what letting go realty means in today’s vernacular. Common usage is often something like “Let it go man”, usually followed by an emphatic “Just get over it”. A similar, somewhat older form of this expression is “Leave it behind” but all of these were derived from the classic, now almost idiomatic, “Forget about it”. It seems all too simple, right? I think not.

Forgetting is a cognitively anomalous concept. It cannot be willed psychologically. I mean, you can teach the mind to learn something new but you cannot make it unlearn something that it has already ingested. Perhaps this is why letting it go / getting over it / leaving it behind / forgetting about it is more difficult for individuals with relatively more powerful memories.

And speaking of memories… The context of a certain event, situation, interaction or whatever it is a person is trying to forget is almost entirely responsible for the intensity and duration of a particular memory. Of course, I’m just making this up but let’s pretend for the sake of passing the time that I’m right. Now, here the subconscious plays an important part. Stimuli perceived by the body but not interpreted properly by the mind undergo processes that we do not understand but most definitely feel – according to someone very smart, “What we perceive as real are real in their consequences”.

The point is that we have no control over what we cannot “let go”. We just don’t. We can choose what to think of but not what to remember. Just one of the many ironies of life.


PS. Study hard and please stop taking drugs. I want you sober and whole...