Pins in the timeline of memory
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“Novelty has a way of intensifying memory. The less often you do something, the deeper the memory burrows in.”
Megan Daum, Unspeakable
Time has felt very unsteady and confusing for me since the pandemic began almost a year ago. One simple, but obvious, way this manifested for me is that I would find myself going to respond to an email I thought I received two days ago, only to find out it had been ten or more. I would look back over the time that had passed since receiving it and I could not find ten days’ worth of time in my memory.
This has not gotten better as the months have dragged on. I continually find myself looking back over a week or month and being very uncertain that I was awake and functioning for the majority of it, as I can’t remember that many days passing.
In discussing this with someone recently, she said her husband’s theory is that we mark time through events—vacations, concerts, dinner with friends—and because we are not doing those things, we have no clear delineation for time passing. This makes sense to me. And Daum’s quote reinforces this idea that doing something different has a way of solidifying memory. Those moments and events that stand out to us become something we can point to as pins in the timeline of our memory. A before and after.
Those pins then become how we reference other, smaller moments in time. I remember spending two weeks in Europe in April of 2017 and by way of relation to that trip things that I otherwise couldn’t have told you happened in 2017—client projects, my summer intern, the team we mentored in an annual business plan competition.
This year has brought none of those markers in time. Each day, each week, each month is almost exactly the same as the one before. How are we expected to construct a meaningful account of time when there is no novelty to solidify memory?
Add your Echo:
How has time felt for you over the past year? Have you marked it in a new or different way?
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Pins in the timeline of memory
This makes so much sense. Events as markers...here’s hoping we can acquire some soon! It’s true that reference points make all the difference. Thanks for this. :-)