Social Question
Do you have any memories that aren't accompanied by extremely strong emotion?
Do you have memories of relatively mundane things, or are all of your memories created as a result of huge emotion, whether it is fear, joy, sadness, or whatever?
I’m asking these memory questions because I asked a couple of questions in which I shared a memory of something that happened 25 or 30 years ago. In the first I mentioned coming across a ridiculous list my ex compiled, of imaginary indiscretions by me, and the first person to answer suggested “psychotherapy to move past these old grudges.” A couple of other people agreed. I’m going “that’s ridiculous! It’s just a memory! It’s no big deal!” But they seemed to think it was a big deal and suggested that getting so “defensive” was another psychological issue I had!
In the second, involving my boyfriend and an incident in which the police were temporally involved, it was suggested that this memory was “haunting” me, and again, that I was “dwelling” on it. Again, it was just a memory with no particular consequence.
Then I got to thinking, maybe most people don’t have memories unless they experienced an extreme emotional reaction at the time, and that’s why they couldn’t accept that what I shared wasn’t really all that important to me.
I have tons of memories that are pretty mundane. I remember when I was about 4, being at the doctors, in the waiting room, and a doctor walked by and winked at me two times in quick succession, and simultaneously making a click, click sound with his tongue. I practiced that for days. It turned out to come in handy since, for whatever weird reason, I couldn’t tell you right from left very easily, and learning to wink my right eye helped with that a lot. (I still have to do it, BTW, but I can do it very quickly and just imagine winking. ;)
I remember going to the bank drive though with my mother and thinking it was so cool, them being behind a window and a wall, only being able to see them from the chest up, and being able to get things from the, and get things to them, anyway. I played bank teller a lot.
I remember tea parties with my little China tea cups, and using sugared water for the tea. It was nasty!
I remember swallowing a whole bunch of gum and throwing it up. Later, when I heard that gum never digests and just sits in your stomach for all eternity, I was able to refute that with certainty.
I remember dancing on my dad’s feet.
I remember practicing and practicing tying my shoe laces.
I remember eating pancakes. I loved pancakes! But I hated the feel of soggy pancakes after they’d been sitting in syrup so I started tipping my plate to keep the syrup at one end. I also loved bread and chicken gravy. I remember eat that at the living room coffee table, and we had a black, ceramic rhinoceros on the table.
I remember my mom making me tuna fish for lunch, and and putting a hard boiled egg in it. It was good.
I remember Mom reading books to me,and I remember many of the titles.
All of those were before I was 5, and that’s only a drop in the bucket of my memories, so I don’t think it’s strange that I can easily remember small, insignificant details from only 25 years ago. But maybe it is strange?
Of course, I have memories that were kind of traumatizing to me, but not many. One, in particular, involves a bathroom stall we had in the basement of the house in Seattle. It was painted a blue-green. I have always hated that color. I suspect that stall is tied up with something that happened to me, but I don’t remember what it was, and I was just left with a lingering hatred of the color blue-green. I mentioned that stall to my mother a few years before she died, and she looked at me in surprise. She thought for a moment, then said, “Yes. It was painted blue green! But you were only 3 or 4 at the time. I barely even remember it. It’s amazing that you remember it.”
Do you have any mundane memories of anything in your life? Or am I just odd? No, don’t answer that!
Composing members:
0
22 Answers
