Day 192: Remembering Amnesia

On one of my recent flights I met someone who spoke fondly about his wife and how she is dealing with Alzheimer's disease. The memory loss had become more frequent and there were sections of her life she couldn't remember. As I sat there with my head against the plane window and waiting for it to land, my mind wandered about this thought, about losing memory. About remembering that you have amnesia in some sense and finding yourself through others. Through pictures, and things you had once taken & written, through stories others tell you. And though this version of the world seems very real, it is all but external, it is a narration at best. Though I may never get to meet the kind man's wife, I realize that we sometimes forget on purpose, we choose to forget bits & pieces of our lives that we don't like. It is how we cope and as I think of the memories that makes us, I am inclined to wander to the thought of remembering this lack of that something. This one is dedicated to his wife and to those who get to keep the special things with them, that which is always personal.

Remembering Amnesia
I wonder what it would it be
To draw a blank in your memory
To get to know time has cleared out our head
To start fresh, to start again from scratch instead

My imagination fails to think of that troubled soul
The one who can't remember how they grew old
Those who look for scribbled pages in hope for a clue
And write them down somewhere & forget them too

Though I wouldn't trade my memories for the world
I would hope time flows as moments unfurl
And to those who are lost in the fresh supply of thoughts
I hope some things stay with you, the ones you sought

I am lost in remembering my amnesia sometimes
Trying to remember lost things I can claim as mine
And the little bits and pieces of me
That the world retains on behalf of my memory.