Memory Error

How much of me isn’t me without memories?

Perhaps like other middle-aged people, I find myself in the middle of a conversation wondering whether I’ve told a particular story to a particular person.

What would life look like if I let go of my stories accumulated to date?

On some occasions, I’d be missing out on the chance to convey a point in a particularly effective manner – fact is, stories make things more memorable and make ideas more credible. So there is that. And if I truly let go of and forget the prior accumulation of stories, perhaps I’ll lose the opportunity to link today to yesterday. But is that really so much of a loss?

What’s to gain? If I really let go of old stories, perhaps I’ll be open to new ones – to seeing things that are currently stuck in ossified categories in new, less ossified, ways.

In an expert’s mind, there are few alternatives; in a beginner’s, many.

So I may forego telling old stories for the next several months, just to see what happens.

New wine; old bottles.