My one son has the memory of an elephant.
He can remember the details of events that happened when he was three, trips we took when he was four.
My other son — not so much.
He hardly remembers his best friends from America, and what he does remember is from stories we’ve told him and pictures we’ve shown.
We’ve fabricated most of his memories by sharing our own.
What I mean by that is, my son now claims to remember things I’m not sure he does.
He’s recounting stories of stories. Not stories about actual events in his memory.
Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist, claims that this is not unusual. That our memories are easily-manipulated.
Unintentionally, and intentionally.
In her recent Ted talk, she offers a firsthand account of working on a crime case gone horribly wrong.
A man was wrongly identified by his supposed victim and convicted of rape — purely on the testimony of a woman who claimed she remembered him doing it.
I’m conflicted by this.
On the one hand, I’m extremely uncomfortable that a person may be put in jail for a crime he didn’t commit simply because one or more people remembered seeing him at the crime — which apparently happens a lot (less so now that we can use DNA evidence). On the other hand,
I desperately want to be believed.
If it were me — If I remembered this man as the perpetrator of the crime against me — I’d better well be believed!
I want raped women to be believed.
I want children to be believed.
And, even when a crime hasn’t been committed against me, even when I have not been wronged, I want to believe in my memory.
I want to know that what I remember seeing and doing and feeling and hearing actually happened.
I am emotionally attached to my memory.
Most of the time.
And yet, intellectually I understand that my memory is nothing more than an ever-changing interpretation of an event or an experience.
I think about memory a lot — as a parent, as a child, as a wife, as a writer.
I am very conscious of making my children’s memories, for instance.
I am very conscious that no matter how hard I work to make them good, they might remember them bad.
It’s in these conscious moments that I have great compassion for my own parents.
It’s in these conscious moments that I feel frustrated, too — knowing that there is very little I can do to control or manipulate another person’s memory of me.
As a writer, I acknowledge that my memory is faulty, even though I happen to have one that’s particularly strong and sensitive to detail.
And yet, I honor my memory when I write. I let it lead me down dark hallways, and up vanilla-scented stairwells.
I let my memory pierce that outer wall of my heart so that I may feel love not just in the past but in the present.
We put ourselves at great risk by ascribing so much power to memory – -this is true — especially in situations where memory may put an innocent man in jail;
But if we don’t give so much power to memory; what then?
If we laugh at it; belittle it; if we judge it; doubt it; forget it …
What happens then?
Who are we without our memory?
and yadda yadda, an aliyah blog 
This is so true and a very powerful piece. It really got me thinking, especially as there are times I am so sure of the things I remember saying or doing, only to find out I have for whatever reason, remembered everything incorrectly. Other times, I know I have remembered things accurately but others seem to remember them differently. Who is right? It’s very unsettling.
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It is unsettling. It’s the perfect word. But once we recognize it, we can also use this understanding to give up long held beliefs about people and the stories that we think define us.We can give up hatred in exchange for compassion for instance, for people we remembered as wronging us.
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That is a wonderful conclusion to draw. It could be so liberating. I will have to go and think about that.
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Wow. No one can say you don’t think your topics through. This is above and beyond the call for thorough examination of the topic: I’m impressed
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Sometimes I feel conflicted by my own memories. 😦
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Indeed.
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This is so thought provoking….i am impressed.
Good luck 🙂
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I remember hearing Jeanette Wall (author of “The Glass Castle”) speak, and one thing she said struck me deeply: “Truth is liquid. It takes the shape of its container.” I believe the same can be said of memories. You are a wonderful mama. xoxo
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That’s a great quote (and a great book)
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You can only give your sons what you can give them. They will connect dots and fill blanks however they like. That you want them to have good memories-that you fight to make good ones-makes you an awesome parent.
I’ve written before that I have a long memory. I think this is so because my mother took pictures of me, and we would look at them for days and even weeks afterward, reinforcing what happened in my memory. I am very grateful for that exercise today.
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Are there pictures of your mother? I am the one always taking the pictures — am hardly ever in them. Makes me wonder what that will do to their memories of me. 🙂
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She’s in a few of them, but they’re mostly me.
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Wonderful post. I love the notion of selective memory – to take those bits and pieces to create memories that are no longer tinged with sadness. It may not be accurate, but it may help in moving us forward in life!
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Did you see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Or Vanilla Sky? Two trippy movies about playing with and/or distorted memories.
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It was such a powerful talk. I wish I’d been there the whole time. My fave was when she showed Santa Claus.
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Amazing post. Heading over to watch the Ted Talk that inspired this now.
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