Knowledge and Memories
“Memories light the corners of my mind. Misty water-colored memories of the way we were.” ~Barbara Streisand
Memory is related to, but distinct from learning. Learning depends on memory to some extent. I have often questioned my memory about an event but rarely do I question what I have learned.
Should I be questioning what I have learned?
What I have learned. . .
Memory is fascinating and provides us with advantages that contribute to our survival and development. It isn’t merely stored in our brains like books on a shelf but it is rather our “on demand” recreation of an event from neurons involved in the original experience. These are not discrete wholes but more like a collection of pieces.
Learning is our acquiring of knowledge which allows us to modify our subsequent behavior. Knowledge stored in our memory provides a framework by which new knowledge is linked to by association and inference.
When we fail to grow and expand by obtaining new knowledge, is it our memory that failed us?
Do our memories fail us?
Memories do seem to take the brunt of the blame and to some extent I agree with this. After all, that 18″ long fish you caught 20 years ago, has miraculously grown to well over 3 feet in length since that time;-) It has even been said that memories are just our opinion of what we think happened. Since they are just pieces and we reconstruct them every time we call on them, memories change. Makes sense.
But does knowledge share some of this burden? We consider knowledge to be certainty, reality, the whole story. We tend not to question it, but shouldn’t our knowledge be changing as well? Since knowledge is being stored in our memory and memories change over time, doesn’t that mean that our knowledge would be changing too?
I don’t know. I am just musing a bit here. I couldn’t begin to get into such a deep topic inside a blog post but I do find it mind blowing to think about.
Seeing that we were given these wonderful tools such as memory and knowledge, I think they deserve to be thought about sometimes. As the song goes, “If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we, could we?” I think we would but I think we would change things around and experience the laughter over the pain. If not, we aren’t using these tools, we are simply watching the same movie expecting the ending to change.
Remaining certain in your knowledge will only get you what you already have. Reconstructing and recreating on the fly will allow you to have something you only dreamed of having.
If the fish is now over 3 feet in length, we will need that knowledge to get a bigger fishing pole and net in order to successfully catch it. If we remain certain in our knowledge, we will find ourselves attempting to catch that monster fish with a child size fishing pole.
