Memory

"In Thinking about Decisions". Oil on Wood.
B.Ledesma (c). $650

I found myself responding to people's images of trips or happy moments because I believe they are moments of the present. This past week one of my FB friends posted a nice selfie in a cruise. I was very happy for her.

I responded: "Enjoy!". 

She immediately led me know this was a photo from "some years ago we went on a cruise of the Inland Passage to Alaska"... (it was five years ago)

"Just out of curiosity", I asked, " what motivated you to post a photo of something that happened years ago?...

She responded: "Facebook automatically posts memory photos for you. Sometimes these make me so happy I want to share them again..."

I literally do not understand that behavior- not only seems to bring a nostalgia or longing for something past but also creates confusion. Yeah yeah, at  the top of the image there is an indication of how many years ago the photos is from but... but ... my question reminds: why?....

It may be me but I am noticing more and more people talking of times long gone- on the news, on magazines, and in social media. Is that a sign that life in the present is so uncomfortable/unhappy/boring/uneventful that we need to constantly be reminded of how things were in the past?... what did we enjoy doing?...

I like to think of memory as a feather

from Pezibear's on Pixabay

 a fleeing moment of joy, sorrow, pain, whatever. A moment that makes us what we are in the present. Constant looking at the past can places us at the doors of depression or cyclic melancholia or "having the blues".

Don't get me wrong- memory is a terrific tool of the mind for retaining facts, events, impressions, feelings. How to use it is a choice from my perspective. 

To give in to what FB thinks we have to remember or when we have to remember, seems to be a weakening of our capacity to choose, if you ask me. 

But some people may need that ... uhh... .............................................really?...