Vacation Dialogue: What Memories are We Saving?

I hadn't noticed until the other day how often I clicked on the computer's Save icon while working, writing this blog, or developing a presentation.  I wondered why?  Later that same day the program I was using unexpectedly shut down and I lost a software screenshot I had been creating for my work team.  I lost the entire document!  All of that work gone!

I then redoubled my efforts and clicked on Save more often until it became a habit.  The answer to the earlier question:  I saved because I was afraid of losing something.

Later that week I saved one time too many: I meant to select the Save As option so that I could save a duplicate, revising that new document for the next screenshot.  I was so programmed to save that I overwrote the original document with the new changes.  All of the previous work was lost!

Has this happened to you?  Can you relate?

Have you noticed how often you Save?

Over the past several weeks, I have been sharing Vacation Dialogue blogs using many of the photos taken - Saved - from my recent travels.  These images have helped me to recall various Dialogue Moments, lessons that I am still pondering.

It's been almost two months since I returned from vacation, and as I now go through 2,300 photos I am like Norman B. Thayer in On Golden Pond.  While looking at an old family photo of himself, his wife, and his daughter, Norman says, "Who the hell is that?"

With my vacation photos, I find myself asking:  What was this building or statue?  Where was it taken?  Why was it important to immortalize this scene?

Shout out if you can admit saying, "Who the hell are these people?"!   I admit it!

A canal scene somewhere in Belgium: perfect light and reflection

Consider how often we automatically save and revisit actions and events from throughout the day.  Many scenes can be consciously called forth from our mental filing system; other memories can be triggered unconsciously,  sometimes at a moment's notice.

Olivia, a Dialogue colleague, and I were talking through this Save Phenomena.  It seems that humans are hard-wired to automatically store information, images, and  impressions.    What a wonderful brain we have!  It has helped us as a species to survive: in times of danger we can identify, sort through, recall previous situations where harm was in our way, and respond quickly.

I wonder, though, if we understand that over time we have changed and adapted? That is, do we accept that we have become different people than the ones who saved those earlier memories?  Are those stories we recall entirely accurate or helpful to the People-We-Have-Become?  Yes, we can replay them and reinforce the message we tell ourselves, but is the memory we saved an accurate account of what happened or who we are now?  Maybe we are looking at a reflection of what we want to remember.

Are our memories locked in and unchanging?
 (Iron Gate - Bruges, Belgium)

Many times I think I am an infallible recorder of the facts.  After all, I may act as if what I saw and heard is the one and only account.  Have you ever thought that of yourself - that you have the correct insight or interpretation or recall?  Let's look at a few examples of where fact and reality may not coincide. 

• Some die-hard aficionados of the 1960's TV series, Dragnet, would often attribute Joe Friday as saying 'Just the facts, ma'am."  But TV historians have shown that this phrase came from a parody of the show:  Joe never actually said this in an episode. 
• When working on a scheduling project several years ago, I was introduced to the primary image formats (GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIFF).  What I learned is that some formats are better for larger images, some are better for colors and quality, and some are better for charts and diagrams.  These formats are not equal.  In fact, some photos will lose quality and color when continually edited and saved.
• Coming across a shattered glass pane in Amsterdam, I saw a distorted view of an iconic building along the waterfront.  I could have stayed behind the damaged pane and taken away an inaccurate impression of this building.  Instead, I needed to move beyond the glass wall and see the actual building.

Maybe with photos - and memories - we need to be aware of what we see and hear, move beyond the distorted image that we have saved, and inquire into the glimpses of what others are seeing, hearing, and saving.

Shattered and distorted Image (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

I wonder if our self-image would improve if we realized that every time we recall an event the memory actually changes?  Think about the process of opening that stored memory, reliving it as a new and different person, impressing upon it new thoughts and lessons of who we are, and re-saving the edited memory.  The memory, the facts, and even us have changed.  A shattering thought!

King Albert World War I Memorial - from the base, looking up
(West Flanders, Belgium)

And one last reflection:  the columns that support our memorials begin to look distorted and changed when observed from a different angle.  Maybe there is freedom in discovery when we seek other perspectives! 

This week let us consider and be thankful for:

• Our phenomenal capacity to save and store memories about who we were;
• The relationships we experience that connect who we are today with who we were yesterday;
• An awareness that stories shared from individual perspectives create common-unity; and,
• The ability to save, shatter, and change allows us to remember who those people are that we had forgotten, those people we are now, and the people we are becoming!

An invitation this week of healing: may we be mindful of our Saved Memory and be ready to discover our Shared Future.

Larry Gardepie