I read that the more we remember something, the less accurate that memory becomes. I knew memory was faulty, but I didn’t know it got worse in that way. It makes me think of a favorite movie where the details keep changing, or a love letter that becomes less honest with every read.
Still, there’s something about memory that we hold close to our hearts. First I thought the solution to this memory problem was documenting everything…pictures, documents, file systems. Then I thought that maybe writing things down was a weakness, because all the time we spend reflecting and writing can be spent making new memories.
Now I think it’s somewhere between the two extremes. Yes, we should live in the present, but memories can be nice. Words and pictures ground memories, so they’re valuable in that sense.
All those words are a lot like references. They’re valuable because of the things they refer to, and if they don’t refer to something real then they’re not as valuable.