A “Photographic” Memory

Image from msnbc

So, finally, we have a picture of how a memory is formed (The green particles on the right)

Isn’t that fantastic? To actually see the process of how your brain registers your memories. Looking at the almost black picture and then the one with green (post memory) pictures made me wonder wouldn’t it be really great if they could take a picture of the emotion that accompanies that memory too? Would they able to take a snapshot of how we felt when the memory was formed? Our memory of graduating from high school, the feeling we had when we were blessed with our first kiss, our feeling when we broke up with a loved one, the feeling of receiving our first paycheck, buying our first car, watching a child being born watching a sunset on a beech with the love of our life, watching……… I wonder.

I wonder what a feeling would look like if we could take a picture of it being formed. I wonder if taking a picture of a feeling will make it loose the “feeling” and transform it into a tangible physical thing that would stop feeling like a “feeling”.

I wonder…

Congratulations MR. Dad we are in our 40's.

We went to school together even though he is one year older than me. It does not make a difference anymore, we are both early forties. He has a son graduating from a university in London next year!!! AND WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?? I thought we were still in our twenties still looking forward to making choices in life, trying to decide on directions and build something that will eventually result in families and children and education and universities and marriages and grandchildren and… when the hell did this happen? How was I left out? Where is my son that will graduate from his university next year?

Apparently there is this whole period missing from my life. I have been working, working and working and forgot that there are other things in life that I could, maybe, perhaps also want. Ok, do I really want these other things? Do I really feel left out? Do I really miss having/creating a family? Actually no, really, I am not making this up to feel better. I think the problem is the shock of knowing that one of my childhood friends will maybe soon be attending the wedding of his son. Maybe, just maybe, it is the shock of realizing that we actually did grow up and mature and hit our forties, that this is no joke or someone with a bad sense of humor trying to pull a trick on us. Maybe it is the shock of realizing that some people are beyond living in the moment, living the single life to its fullest, responsibility” less” (to a certain degree). Maybe it is even realizing that I don’t belong to the majority anymore. I am the minority now. In my society I am the minority that went against norms, family pressures and general social behaviors back in the 80’s. Damn it, and I also just discovered that I am dated!!! Just like those tiles from the seventies (unfortunately back in fashion now) or those pink and white sofas from the eighties, I can be dated. Funny how in your twenties people question your wisdom when you say I am getting married, in your forties your wisdom is again questioned when you say I am NOT getting married. So when are we wise ? More importantly who has the answer ?