I think we are well advisedto keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we findthem attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced andsurprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad nightand demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who isgoing to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought wecould never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget whatwe whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were. I have alreadylost touch with a couple of people I used to be;
Saved by Alex Dobrenko and
“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget loves and betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were. Keeping a notebook keeps alive some illusion of who we used to be, allowing us to maintain continuity with a self we’ve already outgrown.”
-Joan Didion (from “On Keeping a Notebo
... See moreMemory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember.
“To remember somebody means to put them back together and to hold them within ourselves. As everybody knows—or will come to know—people who you can’t live without die, and you keep living. But once they’re dead, they can be with us all the time.”