Perspectives

May 16th, 2015

Dear M,

Speaking with an elderly friend has given you pause for thought. As you listened to her the other day, you wondered if you would sit around when you reach your 90’s and talk about your memories, rehash old stories, hoping to leave that part of you with your children when you’re gone. As you listened, you realized that memories are a tricky thing. What once was positive, can be remembered with negativity and that’s the story you tell your kids. In contrast, some of the things that happened were bad, and in trying to minimize the pain of that memory, you tell the story and make it positive.

Long term memory works better than short term. You want to write your memories now so you don’t change them, making something happy, sad or vice versa.  You want your children to have your memories as they are today, not how you’ll remember them when you’re 90. Someone else can write that story.

Life is funneled away in our brains as little filing cabinets, and you wonder which drawer will pop out next when you remember something you’ve forgotten. It’s the small things in life which fills in the slots; details that makes life so interesting. It’s also these details that we forget and without them, we lose part of our memories, part of ourselves, and part of the heritage we leave behind.

You write now so you can remember, understand, and know yourself; but it’s not all about each individual memory. Your life is a series of memories that tell an entire story. This is why you write them now. You want today’s perspective to tell your tale.

Talking with an elderly lady and listening to her stories made for some wonderful fodder you will incorporate into your written works someday. Someone living that long makes for a great story, real or imagined. You hope you supply that kind of thought to someone else when you become that age, but today, you want to tell your own story including the tidbits that make for interesting reading.

Stay true to yourself, and keep your memories safe, whether negative or positive, because they will bring out into the open the things which are hidden.

You see yourself writing into the future, and what comes out, you hope will thrill your readers.

Keep on writing on.

M.

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