THE ECLECTIC HORSEMAN

Blog number 228 13 October 2008

Ever since I was able to obnserve the magic machinations of mine own mind during psychoanalysis, I have been fascinated with minds. Both mine and others. Memories especially intrigue me.

A few years back, while visiting my youngest son Derek, he arranged for me to copy a bunch of his music from his computer to mine. I told him I liked R. E. M., and he volunteered the information that I would probably like "Orange Crush" by R. E. M. He said it was his favorite R. E. M. song. I told him I had never heard of it, but to transfer it. When I got home, I listened to it, and he was right. It's a good song.

That's act one.

A few years pass and there comes a time when I mention him liking "Orange Crush." He said he never heard of it. I dragged it up on my computer and had him listen to it in order to refresh his memory. He said it was the first time he had ever heard it, and not only that - he didn't like it!

That's act two.

There is no act three.

Now to me, the most interesting point of these "false memories" - either his or mine, is that when I think of the time he wanted to download it for me, it is like a video in my mind. I can see the whole event playing out once again, just like it did back then.

Of course, his video of this event is missing from his mental store of DVDs.

When two people remember a single event in different ways, each is seeing a replay of what they saw the first time. Tell me that ain't weird.

Tell me God isn't sometimes jerking us around for no apparent reason except to amuse Himself at our expense.

Posted by Don Reynolds at 2:21 PM 2 comments Links to this post