Glad you’re not a Goldfish?
How memories can play tricks on us
They say a goldfish has a very short memory span. If it’s true, it’s probably just as well. My two goldies swim up and down in a largish tank, but what do they think about all day?
This isn’t about whether or not goldfish have limited memory skills, but it does relate to that.
Ever sat down to watch a film and about halfway through, a scene, an image, a few words, spark a connection in your brain? Later in the film, a character emerges and you think to yourself, I’ve seen that guy do this before.
Gradually, you realise you’ve already seen this movie. It’s taken you three-quarters of the way through before you discover this — and you can’t remember the ending either, so you might as well carry on.
Memory is a weird thing. It’s personal to each of us and you’d think we’d have a tight rein on it, but we haven’t. My husband thinks he’s been to Pompeii — says he can remember walking amongst the ashy bodies — but I know for a fact he hasn’t been there.
I read once about a boy who clearly remembered the experience of being lost in a shopping mall when he was three or four years old. His big brother sometimes reminded him about it. It was only when he was an adult, that his brother admitted he’d made the whole thing up.
If memory can be so unreliable, what does it say about who we are? After all, we are our memories. Think of the Alzheimer patient who can’t remember key events in her life, doesn’t recognise people — doesn’t even know her own daughter. Tragic that we can lose so much of ourselves. The book and film ‘Still Alice’ gives a frightening description of memory degeneration.
Happily, on the whole, our memories are good. We don’t have a monopoly on that, though. Animals have excellent memories. Two guys bought a lion cub from Harrods (back in the day when you could buy anything from that store) brought it back home, raised it and loved it — then realised it needed to be living in its natural habitat.
So they took it to Africa and released it into the wild. Did it wander off and forget all about them? Have a look at the video. It’s one of the most heart-warming things you’ll ever see.
Animals remember humans who have helped them. They show gratitude. They show intelligence. They have mental abilities that are clearly above and beyond what some sceptics believe them to have.
Does getting older mean our memories start to fail? Ever walk into a room and think: What did I come in here for? I believe they call them ‘senior moments’ and we all have them but it’s nothing to worry about. It isn’t a sign you’re losing it.
Matter of fact, those holes in our memories can be a good thing. We can ‘forget’ some unpleasant events in our lives — let them hide in the cobwebby nether regions of our brains, never to be recalled again.
A bad memory can save you money too. Why shell out for an expensive Sky Movies subscription when you can watch the same old films over and over and not remember what happened?
Ah, such is life. We’re odd little creatures walking about on the surface of this planet, each of us, like snowflakes, one of a kind.
And it’s our memories that make us who we are.
