“If I could forget one memory? Why do I have to pick
one?”
“It’s a question designed to force you to order your
memories and determine your priorities and such. It’s like picking your
favorite color or something.”
“Why would I want to forget my favorite color?”
“I said ‘it’s like’…it’s a simile…nevermind. Maybe
you can think about it like an anti-favorite. Choose an anti-favorite memory.
One you want to forget.”
“Well that’s just stupid. I can’t just choose to
forget a memory.”
“It’s a philosophical question, Randy, there’s no
need to get peevish.”
“Philosophical? You want philosophical? If I pick
one memory, then that changes all the other memories! All of them! We live a
life in sequence, you know, all those butterfly-flapping-their-wings-across-the-world-changes-everything
stuff.”
“I’m not asking you to decide something never happened,
I just wondered if you ever wanted to not remember anything in particular.”
“Oh. Well, no. Even if something’s unpleasant, it
teaches you something. If I were to forget it, then I’d be doomed to repeat it,
right? That’s how the saying goes, Charlene.”
“You know too many sayings… Okay, what about your
worst memory? What’s that?”
“When my Dad died. That question was easy.”
“Well, wouldn’t you like to forget that? All that pain?”
“That would be awkward. Me walking around not
remembering my Dad was dead. I don’t think that would go over well.”
“Good point. That would be problematic. Ooooh! What
about your most embarrassing memory?”
“Nope. Not telling. But I’m not forgetting either.
It reminds me to have some humility.”
“There has to be something you don’t want to
remember.”
“Charlene, you’re the one who wants to get all
philosophical. Fine. I’m a product of my memories, the good and the bad. They’re
what make me who I am, and I’m good with that. Sure, I’ve made mistakes, but I’d
like to think I’ve learned from them. I’d like to think I’ve done the best I
could with what I’ve been given.”
“Randy, I just need to know what type of memory you’d
like to forget so that I can check it off on my survey for psychology class!”
“Ah. Well, could we just forget this conversation
ever happened?”
“So, ‘awkward interaction with an acquaintance’ it
is. Thanks.”
I think I could forget a bad memory but it would not change who I am because of what I learned from that unfortunate encounter. My son has no memory of it, but I hate the words I said to him that day.
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