Posted by Luke in I was getting extremely annoyed at Firefox 3 this past week for not letting me install the latest flash player. You might be wondering, “what the hell has that to do with funny childhood memories.” You’ll see. I was sent the following video by my sister in law:
After ages of stuffing around I did what I usually do, stumbled upon the folder that held the flash files and forced an automatic update. It worked! I then beheld the above and what happened next is largely due to my strange ability to make connections between things that have none. Yes, I thought of G-Force. Here’s what I grew up watching:
Ahh the memories came flooding back. I was taken back to a simpler time when life the most exciting thing in life was a morning cartoon. But that isn’t the weird part… what amazed me was the fact that I could remember something special. No, I am not talking about the cartoon either. I could remember what it felt like to watch it. I could remember the same excitement I felt every time I switch the cartoon on. It is the same today when I watch it. Sure, it’s crap but the same emotions come flooding back. I thought I’d take a look at how old it was… 1985. That would have made me eight years old.
This got me to thinking (of course). Courtesy of a recent email conversation I have come to understand the human differently. I think perhaps information is stored in our minds in whatever format we choose to store it and it never goes away. How often have you walked through a shopping centre and you catch a whiff of some woman’s perfume and it reminds you of a past lover? What about when it rains? Ahh… this is just a Houghton thing isn’t it? Then again… maybe it isn’t.
Anyway this is just a random thought for you. I enjoyed watching those videos again… it really took me back!
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“…my strange ability to make connections between things that have none…” Nothing strange about it, my friend! What is strange is the ability NOT to make such connections… We tend to believe in clean concepts and clear connections. The reality is fuzzy, overlapping and inter-related concepts with a welter of memories and theories about their connections. I would say that when you “see” a connection (as opposed to sub-consciously “overlooking” it), there is some level at which the connection is important to you, even if it is not terribly relevant in the context of the “things” you are thinking about.
Memory is a mysterious process, of course. But here’s something to think about: Are you remembering the feeling, or likening your current feeling to a feeling that your current feeling reminds you of? In other words, although you see the sequence differently: Is the connection between the unconnected things found in the similarity of the feelings about them? Thing1 evokes feeling1 similar to feeling2 evoked by thing2…(mis)perceived as thing1 reminds you (strangely) of thing2 evoking feeling2 (you think)… with the result, for good or ill, that feeling1 is disconnected from thing1, being perceived as past (memory) rather than present (response). Confusing, I know… head for the whiteboard!
ahh yes the faithful whiteboard. I would be lost without one of those. I remember a meeting at Queensland Rail once that used to have a printer attached to it. That was magnificent!