Permission to remember
     June 07, 2012      By Glenn Hascall   
There are subtle movements caught in the harddrive of memory, emotional connections springing from the complex act of living. This is why a certain smell can instantly transport you to someplace you wouldn’t likely remember without the stimulation of scent.
Fixating on an object in memory long enough can cause a parade of connected memories that paint a story even in the randomness of how the memories were recalled.

Yet we live in a world that is bent on removing an atmosphere for memory, and creativity. We push forward in a maddening display of adrenaline. No time to listen to the stories of those who have lived a good life, no time to read the musings of those who are willing to share, no time to remember how we got to this place.
No time.

Bedtime stories are replaced with an in-room TV and DVD player, and we need noise for every moment of our day. Sometimes we sleep with noise inducing machines in order to stop the potential for thinking.
We seek to expunge memories every day while others seek to embrace them like a well-loved family member. Either approach leads to imbalance.

If you watch a television show long enough you can come to the place of developing an emotional attachment to the show. You hate to miss an episode. The same is true in everything from music to laundry soap.

This is why when you hear a song you once heard on the radio and you find it connects to a memory of someone you loved or hated you respond to the song. It could be to listen quietly and sigh or it could cause you to quickly change the music source.

Sports players develop an emotional connection to objects of clothing or hairstyles. Men may have an emotional connection to an automobile or motorcycle. The truth is it’s not so much the object, but the collective memories that are part of the experience of interacting with the object.

As much as we try to pass ourselves off as unfeeling and little caring in the 21st century – we do care – we do feel.

Backyard gardens can easily become a place of emotional connection. I think we all really do long for a place where it’s OK to feel something. Every impulse in this time in world history is in league with the idea of filling every moment with enough data and stimulation to suppress strong emotional impulse. While this is the goal there are often times when the overload moves to a point of emotional meltdown.

So, maybe we do want to stop. Maybe we do want to decrease our inner speed limit. The trouble is we’re not sure it’s possible. Any time we have ever tried to sit silently and simply think, or concentrate on reading it becomes a burden we resist carrying.

When it is hard we tend to give up. When it doesn’t seem natural we assume it is no longer sensible.

Human connection has become a lost art. We are quick to respond electronically, and may even begin experiencing an emotional connection to interacting in this way, but is it enough?

A touch, a voice, a scent, a laugh – they all have the potential to make us creatures of collective togetherness. At the end of the day the choice becomes ours to either drown out all but the future, or to embrace the best parts of our past. The reconciliation of memories can be the fertilizer needed to spur personal growth. We can’t do that without giving ourselves permission to remember.

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