Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
If you had the ability to erase from your mind a particularly painful experience so that the memory would no longer exist, would you?
Does time heal all wounds?
Willie Nelson once wrote "Forgiving you was easy, forgetting seems to take the longest time". Is it possible to ever really forget?
p.s. stop sending me prozac, kids ... it's just a question ;)
posted by punky @ 10:06 AM
22 Comments
22 Comments:
No. I don't think we would be healthy remembering only good things. It is the combo of good and bad that makes us grow. Hopefully there is a balance.
Time does not heal anything. Dealing with it every day makes it bearable. Some wounds don't heal.
If you forget you lose a part of youself.
Kind of a philosophical quesion here.
1. Sure. It's not like we've only had one bad experience to learn from.
2. Hmm. Old wounds tend to leave nasty scars.
3. Big things, not completely. Unless you have Alzheimer's which is not a good thing.
what was the question?
No.
Yes.
No.
Punky, has the Prosac perscription run out again?
I think it's Prozac, no? I'm not depressed, Boo Boo Kitty, honey ... I'm just curious. I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the other night and it got me a-thinkin' ...
I think it's a good question ... so throw me some answers would ya?
Okay, no more Prosac, but I'm sending you copies of It's A Wonderful Life and Auntie Mame.
In the meantime . . .
1. Erase? What we forget we're doomed to repeat, to every season, what doens't kill us, etc. So, I guess no.
2. Well, if the shark actually ate the arm, time isn't going to do alot to fix that one.
3. See item 1. We probably shouldn't completely forget. I mean, how boring would E!True Hollywood Story/VH1 Behind the Music epsiode be if there's no bad stuff and heartache.
So buck up little camper. Don't make me come up there and take you out for a night on the big City.
Gracious, you say Prozac like it's a bad thing! :-)z
Hmm. I don't think I've ever typoed a smily face before. :-)
This weekend I happened to listen to a CD someone gave me about a year ago. It had been a long time since I had listened to it, and even longer since I have seen the person who gave it to me. I put it on the CD player and thought nothing of it. After the first few songs I suddenly was right back where I was a year ago. Sweet Jesus, was that ever a dark time in my life. I didn't realize how dark until it was juxtaposed against my life now. It was scary how quickly the CD took me back there. As soon as I got home, I took the CD, drew a little skull and cross bones on the cover (not really) and then placed it in a box marked "Pandora" (really) and put it away, forever. I considered throwing it away, but it felt too negative. So anyhoo ... that plus the movie obviously triggered the question about being able to erase memeories from your mind.
/overshare
Erase from the memory a particularly painful one? No. I'm content to leave them back there where they are.
Time heal all wounds. For the most part, yes, but not all of them. I find I'm much better able to let things go now, but - whether they are closer or more painful or what - Jackie has been unable to do that with regards to her sisters. Bummer.
Possible to forget? Yes, believe it or not, it is. Sometimes, like Punky's CD experience (GNFA Ride at DisneyWorld - (tm)?) things pop up and bring back memories that you HAVE forgotten. But mostly, they are back there somewhere and can return.
my friend Dan thinks I should burn the CD in a ritualistic bonfire ... who's bringing the marshmallows?
Do the bonfire. Maybe a really hot fireman will answer the emergency call after you've set the drapes on fire.
What CD was it????
It was a Barry Manilow CD.
Ha. I kid.
It was a mix.
Punky,
Don't toast marshmallows over the burning cd. All the bad juju will get all over them and you'll be stuck with it forever.
You could just drop it in the trash. The problem with keeping it at all is that eventually you'll be tempted to open it again and play it just to see. Or at least, I would. But then, it takes me a while to learn certain lessons.
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
- Confucius
/pity party.
Next question is posted ;)
No - our memories are who we are. To erase those is to erase ourselves.
Time doesn't heal bugger. Only we heal. I actually think that since we age and grow over time, we consider time to be the root cause - whereas it is really us that's doing all the work!
I don't think you can forget - but you can get to the point where you have to actually WORK to remember it.
This post reminds me of James Taylor's version of George Jones' "She Thinks I Still Care"
That may not make any sense, so sue me. I'm singing it for y'all now.
-cbol
Man, I frikkin' love Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. And it made me ponder in the same way.
There may be one that I would be tempted to erase, but I think when it came down to actually doing it, I would remember that I would lose more of me by losing that memory than I would care to give up.
MOst wounds it does heal, but some never fully heal....I think you just get somewhat used to it being there. Kinda like a nagging joint.
You can never forget....mostly it just gets to the point where you rarely think about it and therefor, it doesn't matter.
As for James Taylor, I like the line in Country Road......
I'd have to be some kind of natural born fool
To want to pass that way again
I wouldn't erase a thing.
I agree that time doesn't heal us, we do.
And as for forgetting ... there were things I swore I'd never be able to forget. Things that made me so angry I wanted to hurt small woodland creatures. Interestingly enough, I can't really remember what they were. It would take a lot of effort to try and remember. And who the hell wants to?
Better to learn from the bad but remember the good, I suppose.
Thanks for all the great responses, y'all. ;)
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