Holiday Memories

Christmas and Thanksgiving are two holidays that are often considered family days. Many of us, if we are fortunate, can recall some very special times associated with these two holidays, like receiving a favorite Christmas toy as a child, or the smell of turkey and fresh rolls coming out of the oven at the feast of Thanksgiving. There have been a few times during holiday family gatherings when everything seemed to be about as good as it could get. Such times can be relived in our imaginations as memories and can be especially comforting in old age.

I wonder sometimes what kind of a person I would be without my memories. The gift of memory, which we take for granted, really determines who we are. We could not learn from our mistakes without memory. Without remembering where we have been we would have no understanding of where we are now or what future is.

Memory allows us an understanding of the concept of time. While all living is done in the present moment, time adds continuity to our moments. We may plan events in the future, but those can only be lived in the present tense when their time arrives.

Once moments have been lived they become past tense and can only be relived in our imaginations as memories. Memories revisited can never be as vivid as the original moment because we are unable to recapture the same emotions connected with them.

Our memories are generally reasonably reliable. We forget where we put our car keys or our glasses now and then but they eventually show up where we left them. Sometimes our memory is too good. Take the number 7951. That is the telephone number of my wife when I was courting her over 55 years ago. I no longer have use for it but I can't get rid of it. Eliminating that number from my memory might create additional memory space so that I could put it toward something useful like trying to remember the name of the person I was introduced to five minutes ago.

Music often helps to impress a memory. We may associate a particular Christmas carol with a moment of special meaning we never want to forget. Our sense of smell is often an instant trigger to our file of memories, both pleasant and unpleasant. All of our senses are in some way involved in the process of memory.

The importance of memory in determining who we are becomes tragically clear when loved ones become victims of Alzheimer's disease. Through the compounding loss of memory we become strangers to ourselves and to others—our world becomes timeless and forever temporary.

At this holiday season of gift giving and gratitude, let us be thankful for the gift of memory. Without memory we would be a blank slate in a blank world.