MEMORY

There was an article in the NY Times last week about the memory aid often called the memory palace. It's a very old technique going back to antiquity. The idea is to give every object (it didn't say but I assume it can be used for more than objects) you want to remember a location and the more eccentric the better. The asparagus is sitting on the window sill wearing a yellow hat. Those cans of soup I want to buy are in the bathroom sink. There were some tests to see how well you did and all I can say is I did better as I went along. 
     I wish I knew more about how the brain stores memories and how they can be summoned up. I picture those synapses snapping, little jolts of electricity, and everyone of us with our own connections. It makes me think that a universe is lost when anyone of us dies - all the random connections and all the memories packed into that brain.
     There are so many aspects of memory but the one that really interests me is our ability to revise everything we thought. I get a new idea, or learn something new about myself, and I can view the past, my memories, in a whole new light. Things I couldn't understand come clear; actions that puzzled me now have an explanation. History is filled with dramatic revisions - spiritual awakenings and religious conversions, and many other examples of new insight bringing an unexpected change of view. "I was blind but now I see." 
     It's as if we have our particular memories and also a kind of overview of how we understand those memories. A memory on top of a memory - and once you begin thinking about that, you very soon get to the wonderful knots and complications of human consciousness.
     May I always be open to revision. May I never stop looking for insight.