1034 Memory Aid?

Monday, December 25, 2006

Chris, of "Inane thoughts and insane ramblings", wrote some thoughts yesterday (which I read today) on memory, and how accessing a memory can change it.

It's a coincidence that I've been cleaning out the den, and have been finding "memories" that I want to preserve. The next two entries are excerpts from hardcopy journals I kept during Jay's illness. I'm "dumping" them here to preserve it all. It's stuff I don't want to lose or forget. Unless you have lots of free time, and a morbid interest in medical matters, I suggest you skip them. But if Daughter ever wants to put me in a nursing home, I want her to read about the Hellhole first. (Yes, there are good skilled nursing facilities out there - Sunnyview in Schenectady being one of the best. But then there are also hellholes.)

I have always kept notes on events, because as Chris points out, memories change. I am very suspicious of my memory. I review notes occasionally, because (it's just me) I think it's important that facts remain facts. The feelings about those facts do change over time, and that's ok, but for me, the facts must remain facts. And even though my feelings may change, the feelings I had at the time are part of the event, part of the facts, and should be preserved as a fact, even though I no longer have that feeling. Hence preservation of notes.
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