I was stuck for what to write about today. So I finally took out my metaphor dice and played around until I got "memory is a back-handed mirror." According to one online dictionary "back-handed" means "indirect, ambiguous or insincere." I think that is quite astute of my dice.
My husband and I often compare our memories of things that happened to the two of us. Our versions are never the same. One example: when our first child, Ben, was still a baby, we were invited to go sailing on friends' sailboat. Somehow there were donuts, I don't remember where they came from. We were attempting to get on the boat carrying Ben. In my version, I am holding Ben and a donut. I was going to hand Ben to my husband. The donut was accidentally placed really close to his mouth; he took advantage and took a bite. At that point in his life he was eating only baby food, no chunks. He didn't choke (thank goodness) and smiled like it was the best thing ever in his short life.
My husband's version is almost identical except that he is holding Ben and the donut.
I read somewhere that every time you revisit a memory - take it out of your memory bank and look at it -- you change it. I wondered why, so I did a search. According to an article about a Northwestern University study, "Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event. Thus, the next time you remember it, you might recall not the original event but what you remembered the previous time." (https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2012/09/your-memory-is-like-the-telephone-game/#:~:text=Every%20time%20you%20remember%20an,you%20remembered%20the%20previous%20time.)
Then I think that things like math facts and vocabulary must be stored in another part of the brain since they don't get altered (generally). And that's good thing.
The mind throws a gentle curveball to our pleasant memories.
