My mother remembers her parents at their graves. Now we remember her at her grave. 
God sees the rainbow and remembers his promise to never again destroy the earth by water. What happens when you remember someone or something?
Your hard drive changes the magnetized pattern, and it is remembered. But the word betrays the human process. Re-member me. Put me back into your body, into the members of your body. German uses sich erinnern - to put something or -one inside oneself. A memory becomes a part of our self, our life, in some way. It is more than a sterile storage of a fact or row of data.
A memory is a part of us, it participates in our life now and belongs to our person.
And those things that are a part of us and belong to our person are all memories of some sort.
Before you click on delete - whether on your laptop or in your real lap, consider if you want to remove this memory from your life.
But are you even able to forget those things that are really a part of your life? So German calls a memorial statue a Denkmal - literally - think about it.
These thoughts are very important for all of us - please re-member them.
3 Kommentare:
Great post, Mark. I love the thoughts about re-membering and er-innern. Very clever. And I love the photo of the double rainbow. I have one just like that- it's magical.
I think memories become more important to us as we get older. It is what gives some meaning to our existence. Even the bad memories have taught us something ... and it is good to reflect on these things and especially the people who shape us.
I think as we grow older we finally realize how certain people and situations have made us into the persons we are. Even when we write each other in these blogs on the internet, we leave parts of ourselves with others; no thought or deed is in vain - you will meet it again in yourself and/or others.
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