[HPFGU-OTChatter] Book of Questions #4

[Amanda Lewanski]

Sister Mary Lunatic wrote:

> Here's another question from "The Book of Questions" --
> Anyone care to answer?
> _______________________________________________________
> 4.  If you could spend one year in perfect happiness
> but afterward would remember nothing of the experience
> would you do so?  If not, why not?

After pondering, I'd say yes. I've had dreams that I do not recall upon
waking, no shred of memory whatsoever. But an echo of the way I felt in
the dream stays with me all day, even when I've no idea why I have this
lingering good or bad feeling. And I love the lingering good feeling. So
I would take a happy year, with no memory of it, because I think there
would be a similar lingering emotional "imprint" of the happiness, even
if I don't remember why.

>       **Auxiliary question : Which is more important:
> actual experiences, or the memories that remain when
> the experiences are over?

This is a strange answer. Prior to children, I would have said the
memories. But now it's the experiences. Partly because if you focus too
much on making memories, you stop experiencing the moment--witness all
the parents at kid events who spend so much time taking pictures or
videos, they don't have any fun with the kids (but they got so many good
*pictures*!).

And partly because, sitting here with three children in the house, I
have no clear memory of anything but today. Maybe last week. Past that,
if something reminds me I'll remember it, but my memories are no longer
floating handily, readily accessible whenever I want them. They're
fickle, mean little things that I can neither harness nor control nor
get to come when called. I live in the moment, for whatever
reason--stress, too much to keep track of, psychic survival--so the
moment has become the most important.

Hoping I made sense,

--Amanda
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