nostalgia as garbage

Memory is not about looking backwards, that is not why we have it. It’s there so that your past experiences will make you more adaptive in the here and now and in the future.

- Craig Stark as quoted in Total Recall by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Over the years I have become increasingly more at ease with my weak memory.

Firstly, I recognised that being able to forget is a vital strength in creative endeavours. Secondly, forgetting does not necessarily have to be bad.

Forgetting is like the garbage collection mechanisms baked into the architecture of software systems. Often the stuff I forget are the details that (although I am not willing to socially admit) I unconsciously judged to be unimportant at the time of the event.

Unconscious works pragmatically. It is not programmed for nostalgia. It does not discriminate in favour of beautiful moments neither. It just helps us survive.