The Making of Memories

Some years ago Gustaf Stromberg, eminent Swedish-American scientist, had some significant things to say in one of his scholarly works concerning the memories of men:

“A study of the nature of memory shows immediately that it must be carried by an immaterial structure…The matter in our brain is continuously changing…And thus we have a ‘new’ brain after a relatively short time…and the necessity of an immaterial living structure in the brain, independent of that of atoms, becomes immediately evident. This structure…appears to be indestructible.”…”We therefore conclude, that ‘The Memory of an individual is written in indelible script in space and time.'”

So much for the assertion of an eminent scientist. This is somewhat reminiscent of the words of William James who said: “Nothing we ever do is in strict scientific literalness wiped out.” This in turn is reminiscent of an age-old scriptural truth: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”87⎯and also of the timeless, eternal truth that there is in man something beyond matter; that there is in man an everlasting eternal intelligence.

And now as to the making of memories: We never know when some train of thought will recall something that was long supposed to be forgotten. We may seem to forget the name of the man we met this morning, but from many years back we may remember the most fleeting impression of something relatively unimportant.

There is this to remember about memory: It is easier to make memories than to unmake them. It is easier to remember than to forget. Indeed, it is quite impossible to be sure we have forgotten⎯anything. And since memory remains, we would do well to look at what we choose to make our memories.

We may think it won’t matter to see a sordid scene, to hear a suggestive story, to think an unsavory thought⎯but this is a shortsighted supposition. The sordid and the unsightly remain in memory as do the inspiring and the beautiful. “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And what he thinks and sees and hears, what he chooses to record (insofar as he has any choice), should be such as would be welcome to recall⎯and not such as he would be ashamed to remember.

“The memory of an individual is written in indelible script in space and time.” Surely we shall judge ourselves by the memories we choose to make.