If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do it? If not, why not?
wasn't this an episode of angel? anyway, i wouldn't do it. i'm all for seizing the day, enjoying the moment, etc., but what's the point if you're not going to remember? if i don't know i've experienced perfect happiness, how can it be happiness? since college, i've been a firm believer in the idea that experiences are neutral - they only become good or bad depending on our reactions to them. so if i have no memory of my reaction, then the experience ceases to exist, for me, anyway.
i suppose if my perfect happiness helped someone else experience perfect happiness, and they could remember, it might be worth it to help someone else. but if i didn't remember, would that spoil their own happiness? if shared experiences are forgotten, is something lost? say you went on an incredible vacation with friends, but when you returned, no one remembered what had happened and worse, couldn't share the memory with you or anyone else. would that vacation still be as special as it was?
i remember in my days as a night auditor watching brides and grooms come into the hotel completely trashed. and i felt sorry for them, because what a tragedy not to remember such an important day in your life. it's the danger of living too much in the moment - you risk the consequences of having the experience ruined.
from coupland's Life After God:
Finally, I will remember the night in its entirety, but the experience will be strangely tiring. The two of us will sit on the warm concrete steps quietly....The two of us will be in a bit of shock, me more than Julie, over the nature of memories - of how they're all stored in the brain somewhere, but how they can get lost of simply misfiled or God only knows what. Had Julie not sat there and coached me through the memories of that night, I would have gone to the grave without ever having remembered what was in fact a magical night in my life. And so what would have been the point of having lived that night at all?
so for me, while the experience is important, our memories give the experience meaning. and without those memories, the experience loses significance.
how about you?
Æ
