Saturday, January 21, 2012

A Simple Quest

The entries here are based on a simple idea, really: that our memories settle at their own pace in layers over the years.  Some wash away.  Some solidify and become as stone.  Some form entire strata, multicolored, multifaceted shelves upon which our present sits.  That present where we instantly deposit new memories to filter their way down.
I'm old enough now that it is worth my while to do a little digging in those deposits looking for nuggets of meaning, perspectives to carry into the future.  The best parts, though, are the organic deposits that have fossilized, left images of what has been that should not be forgotten, implications, guidance and hope for what is to come.
This is where we come together.  For here, we sit quietly and examine our fossils together.

12 comments:

  1. I think you are right! Our memories do guide us, but we've got to continue making new memories. Otherwise, the game is over...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely. We don't want to try living in the past, just appreciate it and hopefully learn from it.

      Here's a toast to new memories!

      Delete
  2. Thank you for visiting my blog.

    Memories are our own and unique, even children growing up in the same family will move through the world with a different story of their past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your blog is one that I can see myself returning to often. I return the thanks for you visiting here and I hope to add content and ideas worth the while of future trips.

      You are so right about memories within families. If we don't shut ourselves off from those other perspectives, it adds a depth and balance to our own memories.

      Did (do) you have brothers and sisters?

      Delete
  3. Indeed I do. We were steps of stairs like Fry's Cocoa and you could say we came in layers. Two boys, a girl, two boys and another girl.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, that's fun looking for a place to happen! Well, fun for the kids at least, LOL.

      Is Fry's Cocoa Irish? I've never run across it.

      Delete
    2. Fry's began making chocolate in the UK in 1759, they merged with Cadbury's in 1919 and now the company is under the Kraft banner.

      Delete
    3. Grannymar, is Kraft maintaining the taste and integrity of the original - or are they standardizing it to the mediocre middle?

      Delete
    4. Kraft are only finding their feet at the moment... reducing staff and closing factories. Give them time and the products and tastes may well change.

      Delete
  4. I get inspired about life in general and mine in particular by going back often to Viktor Frankl. I quote and I hope that you will get inspired too.

    ".....the opportunities to act properly, the potentialities to fulfill a meaning, are affected by the irreversibility of our lives. But also the potentialities alone are so affected. For as soon as we have used an opportunity and have actualized a potential meaning, we have done so once and for all. We have rescued it into the past, nothing is irretrievably lost, but rather, on the contrary, everything is irrevocably stored and treasured. To be sure, people tend to see only the stubble field of transitoriness but overlook and forget the full granaries of the past into which they brought the harvest of their lives: the deeds done, the loves loved, and last but not least, the sufferings they have gone through with courage and dignity.

    From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past - the potentialities that they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized - and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past."

    Viktor E Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rummuser, I think that is a perfect fit and I thank you for bringing it here.

      Are you, like me, old enough to appreciate it in direct experience rather than the abstract?

      Delete
    2. TOF, I suspect that am a bit older than you are. On my blog's mast you will find my motto - Wiser By Hindsight. That should tell you all about my attitude towards the abstract and the concrete. In my posts also, you will see that I rarely go into abstract ideas preferring instead to the mundane and real experiences, feelings and emotions. And strangely enough, long forgotten experiences have a knack of popping up every now and then due to what I now call synchronicity.

      Delete

If a post is older than 7 days, the comment will go for moderation. Sorry for that inconvenience, but it cuts down on spam and it is much better than Captcha. I promise to check the moderation folder regularly.