Saturday, April 14, 2018
What does the past do for us?
While discussing memory and the past, I'm really struck with the concept of what our memory actually does for us. Memories can be tough, like with Sethe and her experiences at Sweet Home. She's constantly tortured by the literal and figurative remnants of her life as a slave and runaway. However, I think the past can shape who we are in a positive way as well. Our memories, big or small, teach us how to live and improve our futures. We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. For instance, on a small scale, maybe a test that you were unprepared for teaches you to study harder in the future. Regardless of the immensity of the situation, the memory of the occurrence prepares and shapes us. This brings me to the ultimate question: is it better to live a life free of worry and blissfully unaware of pain or a life filled with constant anxiety regarding the future? It's a tough question, but I'd say I would choose the latter. I would rather be conscious of pain and danger (regardless of the emotional toll it takes) so that I can be prepared and perhaps even prevent it for myself and loved ones. But then again, who knows? What do you guys think?
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3 comments:
This question reminds me of the discussions we had about El Dorado in Candide, and most of us said that we wouldn't like to live there because it would be too monotonous. When everything goes well and we only see the good side of life, progress couldn't be made because we wouldn't feel the need for it.
We can also find answers to this question by looking at Buddha's life. As a young prince, Gautama grew up with all the comforts one can have. In spite of his father's attempts to shield him from the harsh realities of the world, Gautama soon learned about suffering and the impermanent nature of pleasure. So he gave up his life as a prince and attained salvation and enlightenment.
Like Maansi, I believe that bad memories make us stronger. In everything we do in life, experience is crucial, and I think that tough experiences make us more prepared for the future than just positive ones.
I think memory is what makes us, us. Life is a collection of experiences which shape us and make us unique. Life, at its core, is a collection of memories, either happy or sad. In our latter years of life all we will have is our memories. I believe that the belief in zamani and how one we die, we will live on in the memories of our family members. Explicitly, yes, once we pass on, we will “live on” only in memory. People will remember us and that is how we live. But back to life, memories are life. Memories give us personality and experiences.
In some ways, I would agree with everyone that even painful memories have a silver lining. They can be teaching moments and can remind us that we're human. They can sometimes even teach us to better appreciate the good moments we have in life. However, in light of reading Beloved, I also want to extend this discussion and say that I think that's a gross generalization that doesn't apply to slavery or other truly traumatic life “experiences” if you can call it that. The pain those people were forced to endure (and sometimes could not endure, as shown by the truly horrifying number of people who were essentially murdered by slave-owners, slave hunters, and others connected to slavery) wasn't something that had any silver lining. As most of us are quite privileged, our bad memories are probably USUALLY the bad memories that accompany life. That's not to say always, but I'm talking typically here. Bad memories for slaves WERE their lives, so it's really not comparable at all. I can't even call them bad memories because that term seems so trivial in correlation to slavery. So in my opinion, the past does “shape” us, but not always for the better, and it can’t be “romanticized” in the way that the phrase “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” romanticizes horrible experiences. As we can see from Beloved, the “peculiar institution” (a truly sickening phrase) didn’t make any of those enslaved people stronger—it just beat them down so that even if they somehow found a way to stand again, it would always be hunched over.
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