Treatise on Memories

I sit here and life seems to move slowly. I think of all the good things in life: friends, music, traveling, and laughter. What are these things? They are simply memories; memories of the past, memories presently being created, or memories that will be forever ingrained in the mind. Our lives are simply a series of moments that have separated themselves into the monumental moments of success, failure, joy, pain, elation, depression, stasis, and change that become our memories.

These memories are not independent nor are they self-sufficient. Either they depend upon each other or they relate themselves to a physical stimulus. It is in this contingent relationship that a memory finds its inherent beauty. On one hand, a memory is awakened by its related memory. For instance, a grandfather sees his grown son playing catch with his grandson. This memory eventually causes the father to remember the countless summer nights he spent playing catch with his son. This could even cause the father to think of his own father and their relationship. In a process that could occur in mere milliseconds, this man has forever associated what used to be a few independent moments into a collective memory.

On the other hand, an influential moment or time in a life can be associated with the physical elements of that moment. The crisp, cool air of a high school football game, the smell of freshly cut grass and summer heat at a baseball field, the song playing when you danced with a special someone. These stimuli can become as important, and potentially, more important than the memory itself. Without the stimuli, the memory does not exist. If there is nothing to recall the memory, it ceases to be.

Regardless, what is a memory but a present expression of a past emotion? A recollection is merely an utterance of what was once felt. And what of the memories that are forgotten? Every moment of our lives shapes us into what we are in the present. The memories which are “remembered” can be evaluated, but those “forgotten,” at least consciously, are lost in the vast ocean of time and have floated into the immensity of collective human experience. However, the impact of that memory has been forever imprinted with distinctiveness on time and humanity. It is in this vastness of time and memory that one either loses or finds himself, or perhaps more accurately, is found. Either way, he is engulfed by the presence. In the engulfment, the man both stumbles and drowns, or he is lifted up into the Truth. To the former, life is a series of meaningless and pointless events, to the latter, life’s memories all point to One.

"I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." - Revelation 22:13

HE IS is all your memories, your hurts, pains, tears, triumphs, victories, successes, and joys. HE IS life. There is none like HIM.