A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with my dad, that made me think. He found a few postcards about our city, old postcards with some buildings and statues that have been demolished since then and asked me if I remember them.
I said, of course I remember them, but this is not so simple as you think. Your mind can trick you easily, you don't even realize it and I tell you how.
My dad used to be an amateur photographer when I was a kid and he has tons of photos of us from a very young age. He took photos wherever we went, in the country and abroad as well and we often looked at them. I can say I'm extremely lucky in this regard as times were different back then and not many had this privilege.
Back to my question, on a second thought, I started to think if I actually remember them where they were, as they were, or I just remember postcards and/or photos about them and to tell you the truth, I don't know which one it is. I sure remember the photos and the postcards, but to have actual memories of those scenes ... I am not sure, I really don't know and tend to believe I don't.
And this is where my trick comes in.
As you may know, I love taking photos. While in Paris, my cousin told me I am like the Chinese (no offense intended), because they are the ones taking photos of everything, everywhere. You see them pouring out of busses and indeed taking photos of everything. It is not a bad thing, trust me.
I love art, museums, exhibitions, but above all, I love to visit places. Always, and I mean always take photos, wherever I go and where photographing is prohibited, I am not happy.
Being a blogger helps me in this regard as I like to share what I see with you on Hive, to give you the opportunity for you to see it too and to keep my journal on an immutable platform.
Posting content on Hive is not as easy as it seems at first glance, especially if you want to post quality and not just throw two lazy sentences and three crappy photos. It takes time to document what you're writing about, especially if it's art or travel. Going through the photos while drafting the post helps me memorize everything better and trust me, it's a huge help long term. I have a very good visual memory and remember what I see, but when it comes to art, I used to visit (at least) three exhibitions every month, each with as much as 40 - 80 exhibits, you can imagine what happens. Some of the most interesting pieces stay in my memory for longer, but the rest fades away in time.
You may argue that we don't have to remember everything, which is true, but then again, we go to places to see and what you're left with for the rest of your life is memories. yes, we buy physical things as well, some useful, some useless, but memories are more precious, in my opinion anyway.
So back to the initial question, what do we actually remember? I bet I'm not the only one remembering things about my childhood, but at a careful examination, do I really remember those scenes? Or those scenes got printed in my head, because my parents told me about them many times over the years?
What do you think about the matter? Have you thought about this? Feel free to let me know in a comment.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
- Communities Explained - Newbie Guide
- Cross Posting And Reposting Explained, Using PeakD
- Hive Is Not For Me
- How To Pump Your Reputation Fast - Newbie Guide
- Tips And Tricks & Useful Hive Tools For Newbies
- More Useful Tools On Hive - Newbie Guide
- Community List And Why It Is Important To Post In The Right Community
- Witnesses And Proposals Explained - Newbie Guide
- To Stake, Or Not To Stake - Newbie Guide
- Tags And Tagging - Newbie Guide
- Newbie Expectations And Reality
- About Dust Vote And Hive Reward Pool, by libertycrypto27
Oh memories good and bad. Remembering things small and a long time ago can be hard. Sometimes those memories I feel are fluffed a bit.
I think of all the times I studied as a student. So many times I think they left the memory bank once I used them on say a test. I think that is common though.
I do think being reminded of an event or occasion does help us reminder. I think of the family vacations I went on. I remember something about every one of those. I think seeing pictures, consuming food and even music helps us remember events. Perhaps the more senses or feelings we use aids with our memories. I still remember riding on a float for the first time as young kid (maybe I forgot an earlier time 😆) I was 5. Maybe throwing and eating candy helped that memory.
What is challenging is recalling your very first memory. I have a handful of early childhood memories but for the life of me I don't know which happened first. Another thought if we remembered everything wouldn't be more machine like than a human?
Now I know where possibly some of your great photography skills came from 😉 Sounds like you got to see a lot of good photography growing up 😃
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
More info - Support @topcomment - Discord
So many times I have sat down to look at old photographs and thought 'hmm. I do not remember that at all'. You would think that the photographs would trigger memories but I don't find that that is the case. At a young age, I think we don't recognize events and places as being important to capture in pictures, like our parents did. They, like your father, were always taking photographs. What I do remember from those early years are usually associated with emotions.
Like the time I attended a gun show with my dad. They had an elephant on the grounds that you could pay to ride. I didn't remember that until I ran across the photograph and a feeling of intense fear washed over me, but I don't actually remember getting up on that elephant. My dad said I was petrified and yelled loud enough for the entire gun show to hear. There are photos that triggered happy feelings as well, and even in those I don't remember being present, but the photos prove otherwise.
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
More info - Support @topcomment - Discord
Thank you so much!
I have thought about this often. My father recently passed away. I have many stories I tell my kids about growing up. As I discussed a few of those stories with my siblings, I realized I was probably passing along stories I have heard and not actual memories of my own. On a different note, I also realized many of my stories were not true lol either I remembered them wrong being young at the time or misunderstood stories and retold them differently (different being wrong 🙄) Of course there are also stories I have knowingly and intentionally embellished over the years to make them better or to drive home a point haha
Awww... Something like that happens to me... My mother usually repeats some stories frequently since I was a child. She does this especially with special moments she had with my grandparents. So, I have heard so many times some of those stories and repeated them that, over the years, I have ‘built up memories’ of it in my mind... The interesting thing is that I often talk about them as if I had lived them, which is impossible because in many cases they happened before I was born and when my mother was a child or a teenager... Something similar happens with narratives describing places... I take photos on the street and I often come across old people who talk to me about my village as it was many decades ago, it happens so much that I get to have in my head images of yesteryear, which I have never really seen... Thank you for this interesting article @erikah friend!... ;)
!discovery 35
!PIZZA
𐲉𐳯 𐳦𐳪𐳖𐳀𐳒𐳇𐳛𐳙𐳓𐳋𐳠𐳠𐳉𐳙 𐳉𐳎 𐳒𐳜 𐳓𐳋𐳢𐳇𐳋𐳤⹁ 𐳀𐳘𐳐𐳓𐳛𐳢 𐳀 𐳎𐳉𐳢𐳉𐳓𐳓𐳛𐳢𐳐 𐳉𐳘𐳖𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳐𐳘𐳢𐳟𐳖 𐳠𐳛𐳥𐳦𐳛𐳖𐳦𐳀𐳘⹁ 𐳛𐳙𐳙𐳀𐳙 𐳥𐳁𐳢𐳘𐳀𐳯𐳦𐳀𐳓 𐳏𐳀𐳤𐳛𐳙𐳖𐳜 𐳓𐳋𐳢𐳇𐳋𐳤𐳉𐳓 – 𐳮𐳀𐳖𐳜𐳂𐳀𐳙 𐳉𐳘𐳖𐳋𐳓𐳥𐳬𐳙𐳓 𐳀𐳯𐳛𐳓𐳢𐳀 𐳀 𐳠𐳐𐳖𐳖𐳀𐳙𐳀𐳦𐳛𐳓𐳢𐳀⹁ 𐳮𐳀𐳎 𐳀𐳯𐳋𐳢𐳦⹁ 𐳘𐳉𐳢𐳦 𐳀 𐳥𐳬𐳖𐳉𐳐𐳙𐳓 𐳀𐳙𐳚𐳐𐳥𐳛𐳢 𐳘𐳛𐳙𐳇𐳦𐳁𐳓 𐳉𐳯𐳦⹁ 𐳮𐳀𐳎 𐳤𐳛𐳓𐳥𐳛𐳢 𐳘𐳉𐳍𐳙𐳋𐳯𐳦𐳬𐳓 𐳀 𐳌𐳛𐳦𐳜𐳓𐳀𐳦... 𐳮𐳀𐳖𐳜𐳥𐳑𐳙𐳭𐳖𐳉𐳍 𐳉𐳯𐳉𐳓 𐳓𐳛𐳘𐳂𐳐𐳙𐳁𐳄𐳐𐳜𐳒𐳀. 𐲮𐳀𐳖𐳜𐳂𐳀𐳙 𐳙𐳀𐳎𐳥𐳉𐳢𐳭 𐳇𐳛𐳖𐳛𐳍 𐳀 𐲏𐳐𐳮𐳉-𐳙𐳋𐳖⹁ 𐳏𐳛𐳎 𐳀𐳯𐳛𐳓 𐳀 𐳏𐳉𐳗𐳉𐳓⹁ 𐳀𐳘𐳉𐳗𐳉𐳓𐳉𐳦 𐳘𐳉𐳍𐳖𐳁𐳦𐳛𐳍𐳀𐳦𐳦𐳪𐳙𐳓 𐳋𐳤 𐳀𐳘𐳉𐳗𐳉𐳓𐳢𐳟𐳖 𐳠𐳛𐳥𐳦𐳛𐳖𐳦𐳪𐳙𐳓⹁ 𐳮𐳁𐳖𐳦𐳛𐳯𐳏𐳀𐳦𐳀𐳦𐳖𐳀𐳙 𐳉𐳘𐳖𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳯𐳦𐳉𐳦𐳟𐳓 𐳘𐳀𐳢𐳀𐳇𐳙𐳀𐳓. 🙂
Interesting thoughts. Sure, you are not the only one remembering things about childhood, for example I remember the giant (it seemed a giant just to me ^_^ ) tree in front of the house of my grand mother more than 40 years ago but I really can't remember everything about it. Along the time I'm pretty sure my parents (or some pics) added details to my memories, but I think is nice when our family help us to remember a common past. ❤️
The word giant made me smile. We are all in the same situation. When we are little, the whole world seems huge and everything giant. The we grow up and realize nothing we thought is giant is actually giant. It was the same with my kindergarten building. The building was a house, a bit bigger than the other ones around, but for me it seemed huuuge :)
Thanks for the nice comment Silvia! 💚
Congratulations @erikah! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 46500 replies.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
Thanks @arcange, another milestone ✔️
$PIZZA slices delivered:
(8/15) @jlinaresp tipped @erikah
This post was shared and voted inside the discord by the curators team of discovery-it
Join our Community and follow our Curation Trail
Discovery-it is also a Witness, vote for us here
Delegate to us for passive income. Check our 80% fee-back Program
I think this is like the mind games I used to watch.
What we think is a "memory" may just be a picture in an album that we've seen hundreds of times or a story we've heard from our parents that we've come to believe we've lived ourselves.
Yeah, our mind can trick us easily.