Even with no discernible traces of dementia, what happened to me many years ago now sometimes feels a bit slippery. I was there (this was my life, not somebody else's) yet there are times I wonder if the events from the past I'm recounting to others are perhaps dreams I've had, or things I heard about or read somewhere that I've turned into my own experiences. Am I alone on the bell curve with this?
When she was a young adult, my sister went skydiving. Recently when she and I were talking, I brought up that experience. She said - "I don't remember the person who did that". Another example of how our own past can feel slippery - we become different people. Even if you don't have the lapses I described above (that is, wondering if you've made up or co-opted or embroidered a "memory"), have you ever felt like you wouldn't recognize yourself as the teenager you once were?
How is the past slippery for you? How reliable do you feel your memories are?
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
I just went back and read most of your blog entries. Excellent and thought provoking. It is not just the distant past that can feel like it must have happened to some one else but sometimes even things that I did only a few years ago. Where did I get the motivation to do those things and why has it disappeared?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. Motivation is also a slippery thing. Like I said in my March 18 posting, even when I am motivated to do something, I'm often not proud of what it is that is motivating me. But, like everything, that also depends on the day. Today, well...
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