Essay: Good Memory?

How Good Is Your Memory?

One of the wonderful and important faculties that we have as humans is memory. When we activate the faculty we use the word remember which literally means to put something together again. We need to remember in order to survive and be creative. One of the saddest diseases of our time attacks our memory. It is called Alzheimer's (AD) and was discovered in 1906. Approximately 30 million people now suffer from the disease. After an abundance of studies we still know very little about causes and treatment of the illness. One of the early symptoms is loss of short-term memory, then long-term memory and finally the breakdown of the senses. Mental stimulation, exercise and a balanced diet are recommended both as a possible prevention and a sensible way of managing the disease.

So let’s talk about those recommendations. They relate very closely to one of the dynamics of the Universe – memory. Strange as it might seem, our culture works against those recommendations of the AD researchers. Hypnotic media, lack of exercise, and poor diet are creating serious health problems. Jared Diamond indicates that some primitive societies still living on this planet are on average more intelligent, more alert, more expressive, and more interested in things and people around them than average Americans. “They are walking encyclopedias of natural history with individual names in their own language for as many as a thousand or more plants and animal species, and with detailed knowledge of these species’ biological characteristics, distribution and potential use.” And guess what? Many of these folks don’t read and write. Their life-style helps them to develop an incredible memory, better observational skills that enables them to compose and tell many stories, to be keen listeners, to have an ability to speak from the heart, to communicate more and better, to develop better community rituals, to have healthier eating habits and to live in the now. All of this happens because Nature is their main focus of attention.

Today there are many people interested in their family history. They research their genealogy, have their DNA tested, collect heirlooms and design intricate family trees. The scope of their endeavors, however, remains narrow. It’s only about people. Trees cannot exist without their roots buried in the land. Neither can we. The land, Nature remembers. It is memory in frozen form and is filled to overflowing with knowledge and wisdom that we don’t have and badly need.

Studying the Universe has been the object of science from the beginning. From the 17th century until today the majority of people have viewed the Universe as a fixed object, a big machine that was made for their ownership and use. Since the Big Bang discovery scientists have changed their tune and are assuring us that the Universe is one, alive, old -- THE FOREMOST PERSONAGE who should be our main focus of attention.

One simple example of this dynamic of memory at work in Nature is the familiar story of the acorn and the oak. Every acorn contains the memory of how to make an oak tree. Oak trees have been around for millions of years and without any help from us acorns continue their contract with Nature by remembering how to regenerate oak trees that photosynthesize sunlight into energy that we need to exist as well as lumber for our buildings and furnishings. A carpenter can make an oak cabinet but he cannot make an oak tree.

Consider also the elements or the building blocks of the Universe like hydrogen, helium, oxygen, gold, silver, carbon, iron, tin, nickel, etc. They have retained their original shape or form for billions of years. They are memory in frozen form for us to see and remind us of our colossal evolutionary history. Check out the rocks of the Grand Canyon that show us what the Earth looked like millions of years ago when it was changing from a molten to a solid form. Observe the mountains and the oceans that are living memories of the crashing of continents that shaped the face of our Mother Earth. Think of all the experimental years it took the living Earth to fashion your hands and eyes and encode that information in your DNA so that you can pass those gifts on to your offspring.

Besides “re-mind-ing” us of our real and human origins and thereby stimulating our minds to keep them active, the land also provides us answers and means to respond to those other two recommendations – exercise and a natural diet. To exercise means to drive on, keep up, stay engaged. The land, the forest, the wilderness is the environment that shaped and formed our bodies. By walking, running, climbing trees, etc. and by growing and searching for the natural foods that Mother Nature has provided for our bodies’ needs we activate ancestral memories. Those activities will assist us to consider, understand and live out the new perspective -- everything is one, alive and old.

Have you ever considered the consequences of a narrow approach to memory? What has happened to our land because the natural wisdom of the people who first occupied this land was ignored? And what has happened to human beings who migrated here with the belief that the Universe was a machine? Have they forgotten who they are and become cold mechanical machines themselves? Eckhart Tolle reminds us that the past century was the most violent of all centuries. At least 100 million people were slaughtered by the hands of other humans in battles of escalating and heinous violence. Reflect also on the violence that humans are now inflicting on other life forms and the planet itself – the ravaging of forests and plant life, the ill-treatment and extermination of animals, the polluting of water, air and soil. Kristin Schrader-Frechette, the author of Taking Action, Saving Lives, challenges us: “ If you think things have gotten better over the past few decades – with clean air and water laws, and successful stories and a finer national conscience—you’re wrong. It’s not true. Absolutely not true.” Could Alzheimer's disease be natural selection at work?

Here’s an old saying to remember: “If you don’t remember the past you’re living mindlessly and way too fast.

1. What do you know about Alzheimer's Disease?
2. What does your memory do for you?
3. What do you know about your family tree?
4. What does it mean to say the Universe is The Foremost Personage?
5. What happens when we forget?

Send comments to kellerbook [ at ] insightbb dot com return to main menu