Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Brain Talk.

It's funny how our brains work.

My brain can do the following: recall a funny memory, solve logical problems, create passages of music, remember inside jokes from way back, come up with the craziest dreams, directions around familiar places, or bring up a scene from the awesome home video collection created by the Holyoak children.

My brain struggles with these things: coming up with witty comebacks, remembering what I had for breakfast, understanding science, spelling of words (like genuine and conscience-- those are the worst), remembering to floss, even to remember saying my prayers sometimes (thank goodness I have the help of the constant reminder given to me at age eight), and remembering people's birthdays.

Isn't it funny that the part of our brains that controls memory is called the hippocampus? The hippocampus takes things we have gathered with our senses (things we've seen, smelled, tasted, touched, heard) and places it into our short or long term memory.

The problem I have with my brain today is that it keeps bringing back memories of things that would be better stashed that floating in my head right now. I read that our brains, as they store knowledge, attach memories to other similar memories. My deal tonight is, I keep hearing songs that I associate with old memories. I heard a song that reminded me of my ex (heavens knows that is never a good thing), I heard a song that reminded me of my childhood, and a song that reminded me of good times with my high school friends.
Isn't it funny how something so small can take you so far back in the past?

I am very grateful for memories though. Without them I would not remember my wonderful childhood, falling in puppy love, the feeling of accomplishment after writing my first song on guitar or piano, the anticipation I get on Christmas morning every year, the first time I touched piano keys, the day of my baptism, my first time going through the temple, the first time I met my best friends from high school, or my first year at Girl's Camp!

So to my memory I say, thank you.

2 comments:

  1. I love your posts, you must have gotten mom's writing skills and creativity, I need a dosage ;). It's funny how a song can bring you so much of a certain type of emotion. And yes LOVE those Christmas morning. Although the most anticipatio I remember having is when we bought the basketball hoop for jace and I couldn't sleep a wink ;)

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  2. Speaking of songs...Hallie has really been wanting to play Encore, so we played last night for FHE. We REALLY needed you girls!

    Now what were we talking about....oh, yeah, memory...So the book I'm reading right now is called "Where Did I Leave My Glassses? The What, When, and Why of Normal Memory Loss. Ha ha. So just be glad you can dredge up some of those 'good ol' times'. It won't be long before...oh, nevermind. I forgot what I was going to say.

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