Tag: Memories

Replied to ‘Blade Runner’ at 40: Why the Ridley Scott Masterpiece is Still the Greatest Sci-Fi of All-Time by Tom Ward (Esquire)

Blade Runner offers a chance of hope. Hope of a love between two people not meant to love. Hope of freedom, however impossible. A hope as fragile as an origami unicorn, maybe. A hope as beautiful as C-beams glittering in the dark, and as fleeting as tears in rain. Blade Runner is not a film with easy answers. And maybe that is why, forty years later, we’re still remaking it, exploring it, pulling it apart and holding it up to the light.

I agree with Tom Ward, that Blade Runner “is not a film with easy answers.” I remember studying it in Year 12. It was all too much for half the class, so our teacher sent those students to the library with a copy of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Not sure if that happens these days.
Replied to Different Memories (daily-ink.davidtruss.com)

We are shaped by the memories we have. Some of these memories are monumental in building our character, our relationships, and our identity. Some memories hold power over us and hold us back… but they are not what happened, they are what we remembered, and how we add meaning to them.

David, I really enjoyed your reflections on memories, especially your point about how we shape what happened:

[T]hey are not what happened, they are what we remembered, and how we add meaning to them.

I was listening to a podcast recently on forgetting and its relationship with memory. One of the researchers explained how memories are often prone to being negative or at least bias as “whiteness does not show up on the page” and that forgetting is a healthy approach. It has definitely left me thinking about the place and purpose of memories.

Bookmarked The Problem With ‘No Regrets’ by Arthur C. Brooks (theatlantic.com)

If you never pine for a different past, you’ll stay trapped in a cycle of mistakes.

Discussing Dan Pink’s book The Power of Regret, Arthur Brooks unpacks the world of regret. He discusses the four varieties:

  • Connection regret
  • Moral regret
  • Foundation regret
  • Boldness regret

Brooks explains that the challenge is to “acknowledge it and use it for learning and improvement.” To do so, he provides three steps for contemplating the past:

  • Kill the ghost by owning the ghost
  • Forgive yourself
  • Collect your diploma and build on your experience