Memory and dreams are fascinating, because they are unique to you.
I quote from a Science Journal:
” Memory is the reactivation of a specific group of neurons, formed from persistent changes in the strength of connections between neurons”. It also goes on to say that there are several types of memories: Short-term, Long-term, Explicit, Implicit, Episodic, Semantic,Priming, and Procedural.
A mouthful, if I may say so
I stop here, as I do not have a scientific temper, nor is this meant to be an academic exercise on memory.
I am more comfortable with events, emotions, recall, rewind, action, passion, life and laughter. Let’s take this forward and along the way walk through how memories shape our life and play an important part in making us what we are.
Memory in its simplest form is the story book of our life in which the neurons in our brain are the shelves that store the stories. As babies, our brain was not developed enough to store and recall those years decades later. At adolescence our working memory is strong and through adult years,our brain learns to process, store and recall more information and cope with increased complexity.
Take me as an example.
I was born in the year before World War II ended, in a world that was not quite like what it is today. Social media had a totally different connotation, e.g.: Mummy talking to you was more like a slapbook, yelling across the street to a friend was like a shoutagram and attending school a bitter tweet, sorry, and when my parents were called by our principal, Sister Angela, it was Tik Tok. Childhood was fun, pranks and some happenings that are better erased from memory.
When you’ve been around for 80 years, you come to terms with the fact that life is less about big moments and more about so many little joyful, and sad things that somehow keep coming back from your memory bank. Haven’t many of us had an uncle telling us how he studied under a street lamp and had a Sisyphus-like climb in his work life to get where he was?. I don’t remember the context, but I can recall they were hard times.
Memory is our best companion in times of distress and hardship. Our relationships, happy or troubled, build resilience and bonding. Recall the time when elders mediated in a tiff which you thought would never end?. When we lose our dear ones, the painful short term memory is traumatic, but it slowly turns out to be among our most treasured memories.
The Treasure of Life
Memory is the sum total of all those happenings — material and emotional, that have made us laugh, weep, smile, ponder, flinch, sing and dance from your heart and head. We are a country that has a million hues, sounds that elevate or depress, flavours of nature and food and that make our memories much more than a mental activity- a roller coaster ride, if you like. Memory also tells you that the emotional pillar that was your mother, was always there – when you almost didn’t show your report card to your father.
Memory can sometimes be a monster too. Some of you might have heard the story of the eligible bachelor attending family weddings, where every aunt and grandmother would lovingly croon, “you are next!”. It got so irritating and when our hero saw some grand old ladies chatting away at the next wedding, he turned to the oldest and said “ You are next”!. Not funny. But, memory sometimes does not fade.
Our memories also help to bind ourselves together. Adding to the versatility and complex memory function of the brain, is its ability to separate short term and long term memory. Short- term memory is critical to your daily tasks, and is part of your cognitive functioning. Even though it doesn’t last long, it has an important job. As you come to the end, your mind has erased the previous sentence from its memory bank, as it waits for the next sentence. Short term memory helps us with immediate tasks – like ordering from a hotel menu, remembering a telephone number before writing it down, having conversations that need quick retrieval”. Remember your last OTP?
Long-term memory means what it says. “I am your permanent storehouse of knowledge: from childhood experiences, riding a cycle or driving a car, or accumulating, building, and storing information about your career or remembering the lyrics of songs from decades ago. A typical example of this phenomenon is when an 80-year-old may not remember what she had for lunch yesterday, but the details of her wedding 60 years ago are crystal clear in her mind.
Memory Changes with Age
As we age, changes in our memory capability may occur, but these are a normal part of aging, just like our bodies go through changes and deterioration. We may forget where we kept our keys or reading glasses or forget a familiar street crossing, but these are not serious problems. These usually are signs of mild forgetfulness, not a serious memory problem.
Memories can be deeply heart wrenching and painful, especially when our loved ones lose their ability to recall the most important things in their life and deteriorate to the stage where they begin to lose a little bit of themselves to dementia and Alzheimer’s.
That’s a bit of a sad thing, but life has its own ways of coping with changes in body and mind and we can only accept it and cherish our memories, both bitter and sweet, for that’s what it’s all about…..
Happy memories. Sad memories. Earliest memories. Vivid memories. Bitter memories.
All our very own….
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By
Mr V Krishnan
Covai S3 Retirement Community