Remember forgotten memories

I actually have a pretty good memory, and it seems awful to me to recall forgotten memories. I can't bear the thought, and I've said this before. Imagine you've finally forgotten certain memories, and then they surface at a moment when you really don't want to remember them—for example, when you feel happy—there is always something, even if it's just a scent, that you associate with something from the past. Or worse, you start developing dementia, and then you are trapped in that other world full of thoughts and memories; while you slowly go back in time, you get to relive all the nightmares from back then. If you're a bit lucky, there might also be a brief, beautiful time, or otherwise a longing for someone you haven't seen in a long time, a deceased person, or someone who has left your life—that doesn't seem like the pinnacle of happiness to me either. Imagine having to grow old like that, totally confused, tossed back and forth between the past and occasionally catching a glimpse of the present—well, the present. It is the present of the one you leave behind when you sink further and further back in time.

Is there nothing I want to remember, something I have forgotten, perhaps something really nice after all, or a nice person? No, I don't think so. There is a good reason why memory doesn't retain everything; at a certain point, the hard drive is full, and it is simply no longer interesting to have loaded all of that into temporary memory. Of course, it isn't truly erased forever. I will remember who is truly important to me, and that is the only thing that counts.

Incidentally, I once considered doing regression therapy; going back in time, whether under hypnosis or not, does it make sense? I don't think so. Who knows what kind of trouble you might encounter in this life or all previous lives? It seems terrible to me if you have to carry that burden on top of everything else: the burden of your own ancestors and those of your own previous lives, and their ancestors. An endless burden and a clear sign that you don't start with a clean slate at birth at all. Something that I think is quite clear, otherwise life wouldn't be so chaotic. Then we wouldn't all be waiting for the seven good years; just come to 7, 77, and presumably 107 years, if we even reach that age. The nice thing about old age, incidentally, is that much misery is forgotten and ultimately only the moment counts. Anyone who feels good at that moment will therefore answer the question of whether he or she has had a good life with a yes. Recalling memories can be good, but bringing up forgotten memories can also open a cesspool of misery that you'd better not start; after all, the human mind can only tolerate a certain amount of misery. What makes no impression, from which no lesson can be learned, what is too harmful to remember can be forgotten.

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Picture: painting - acrylic}