Explained, "Memory..."

This is a "feature" that I feel is long overdue. It's something I've been thinking about creating for some time, but I suppose I held off on it because I imagined the explanation would be a loaded one. I don't exactly know how to attack the topic. There's so much to say and I don't know how to get it all out there without turning this post into a chaotic, incoherent rambling. Which I guess wouldn't be much different from my usual posts, so what the hell? :P ;)

I really wanted a forum to share my memories. Memory of all kinds. Recent and distant memories. The trivial and the significant. Distinct and obscure. I don't know what you would call memory... a phenomena? Whatever it is, I've always been fascinated with it... few things I'm sure of, but I know I'm "obsessed" with it in a way that most people are not. I don't quite know why that is. Because I can't compare my experiences and memories with others in a deeply intimate way I can only assume I experience memory more intensely; more vividly. Though, in no way would I say my mind is a steel trap... my memory's not photographic. I would imagine having that kind of mind.... I feel my experience, my interaction with memory is more organic? More colored and emotional... but not distorted. I can capture a moment in a way that I feel is torturous at times. Because the moments are rich... the memory that is. Gee... I'm losing the thread here, I know I'm not explaining myself well. Of course, for all of us, memory is deeply profound and rich... I don't mean to say that I'm... I've just seen it. I've known it from speaking to friends and family that I lock onto and into a time and a place in a way that is all my own. A way that is vast and varied.

My experience with memory isn't important to relate I suppose. I just needed to let it be known why I wanted to create these posts, and that's because memory is very important to me. Plain and simple. Not just the memories themselves, but as I've mentioned before... the phenomena of memory. The Memory Construct. It's interesting trying to suss out exactly what it is that we take away from experience. Why we hold some things close and push others away. The vivid memory and the buried memory. How this things relate to our concious and unconcious minds. It's all very personal... our interaction with memory. Especially since memory is so closely tied to the idea of identity. Then you wonder what it means to lose memory? Surely you don't lose yourself when you lose a memory. Those suffering from degenerative brain disease are surely still themselves. The self is intrinsic to being, yet the loss of memory shuts us off from them. And I call to mind the idea of enchantment. The sleeping beauty. They're there, but not there. Awake, but not awake. And what role does memory play in this phenomena? What is memory? What does it mean? What does it do? I've thought long and hard about memory... all my life, so I couldn't go into it here. This place in merely a place to document.

So in the coming days, weeks and months I'll use this forum to archive my memory. All kinds of memories. From all different times and places. The inane and profound. ;)

DS333, recollecting.