Everyday Canvas

Filtering

Prompt: "Memory is subject to a filtering process that we don't always recognize and can't always control. We remember what we can bear and block out what we cannot." Sue Grafton Your thoughts on this?

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Basal Ganglia is to blame say the scientists for this peculiarity of the brain. It seems basal ganglia affect the prefrontal cortex, which is the thinking/rationalizing part of us. This means the whole thing is actually based on the body-science.

Even so, who put together this thing in our brains that works like a circuit breaker, which protects a whole house going up in flames if an electrical short took place? Isn’t it impossible not to believe in a fantastic unearthly mind or a higher being who planned our bodies and brains?

I think this is a big deal, a very big deal. Here, we go into the spiritual philosophy of things, which I stay away most of the time because of the fact that most of us may believe wholeheartedly in our version of a higher being and there are so many differences in the ways we believe.

Whatever beliefs we may hold, this filtering of the memory is something I am thankful for. As an example, one of my cousins was hurt in a car accident some time ago. She says she doesn’t remember the accident at all. She was taken out of the car by the jaws of life and she has no recall of any of that, Thank God! Although she’s fully healed now, she doesn’t mention it and none of us remind her of that horrible occurrence. If she did remember, chances are she wouldn’t bear the memory of it.

In the same vein, if we recalled every single rotten thing that was done to us and every single rotten thing we’ve done to others, we’d have no friends in the world and we wouldn’t be able to stand ourselves either. What we remember and feel bad about is bad enough as it is. Don’t you think?