I had lunch recently with one of my VIPs. We mostly talked about nothing in particular, like you do when you have some adult beverages with someone you enjoy being with, but at one point we talked about how differently people remember things. Or how sometimes a person remembers something very intensely that you don’t remember at all.
I have a very specific memory of the first time I saw him. Not the really, really first time. We went to the same school, so I’d seen him around for a year without really noticing him in particular. But the first time I saw him and it stuck? I remember exactly how he smelled, of all things. If he remembers, I wonder if it would be the same day, the same place. Not that it matters at this point, but it made me wonder what would be different. Something would be.
Some guy in high school says we made out in my bedroom one night after going to a dance. I have no recollection of having gone to a dance at all, don’t remember his name or his picture in the yearbook and I did not have so much attention from guys at the time that I would have forgotten having one in my bedroom. I am pretty sure I could name them even now. Or could I? Does this guy just have me confused with someone else? Or am I the sort of person who kisses and forgets?
I have no idea about the kissing in particular, but I am a person who forgets.
It’s not uncommon for me to be introduced to someone that I knew vaguely in school who has no recollection of me at all, so I guess maybe I should be a little relieved that in this case, at least, I was not forgettable.
No one likes being forgotten.
How many times does someone say “remember when..” and you don’t?
Memory is so powerful, and so…misleading. I am very sure that there are things I remember clearly that never took place. There are other things that happened, maybe important ones, that I don’t recall at all.
If I don’t remember them, does that mean they weren’t important? Maybe there are a lot of people I’ve spent time with and then forgotten.
I wonder if it matters?