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More reflections
Mar. 27th, 2005 12:10 amAt the beginning of the movie, Joel meets Clementine. They don't know it, but they've already been lovers for two years, but each had the memories of their relationship erased. As they talk, Joel tells her that nothing ever happens to him. He's boring.
That's because he had the memory doctor root out every memory of her over the past two years of his life! What's left? Memories of going to work day after day?
Sometimes I try to identify the most pivotal point in my life and dream about reaching back to change it, to "correct" it and make it "better." To make my present life "better." But if I did that, I wouldn't be who I am today and, for better or for worse, I like who I am today.
There's been a science fiction short story rattling around in my head the past few days. I don't remember the title anymore, but it was about a man who was present and conscious of every moment of his life. The scope of his present time was his entire life, and within that span, his consciousness was eternal.
This condition was due to his ingestion of an alien plant that had been mistakenly brought back to Earth from Mars, which was called Tempus. As soon as he ate the plant, his consciousness expanded into his past and future. He fell out of his mother's womb talking, trying to warn the world about this plant.
I try to imagine that condition. You could change your decisions at any point in your life, and the events of your life would change to reflect the consequences of that choice. You could walk among the alternative paths of your life as easily as walking across the room, from the point of view of your expanded sense of time where all moments in your life are "now."
But your memories would change, if "memory" is the right word. If the events of your life change, you are a different person. The other life, the sum of those other choices, would be gone. You'd walk through a door, and the room behind you would vanish.
Still, I remember enjoying that story. I think it's in my stacks of books someplace. Maybe I'll come across it again someday.
That's because he had the memory doctor root out every memory of her over the past two years of his life! What's left? Memories of going to work day after day?
Sometimes I try to identify the most pivotal point in my life and dream about reaching back to change it, to "correct" it and make it "better." To make my present life "better." But if I did that, I wouldn't be who I am today and, for better or for worse, I like who I am today.
There's been a science fiction short story rattling around in my head the past few days. I don't remember the title anymore, but it was about a man who was present and conscious of every moment of his life. The scope of his present time was his entire life, and within that span, his consciousness was eternal.
This condition was due to his ingestion of an alien plant that had been mistakenly brought back to Earth from Mars, which was called Tempus. As soon as he ate the plant, his consciousness expanded into his past and future. He fell out of his mother's womb talking, trying to warn the world about this plant.
I try to imagine that condition. You could change your decisions at any point in your life, and the events of your life would change to reflect the consequences of that choice. You could walk among the alternative paths of your life as easily as walking across the room, from the point of view of your expanded sense of time where all moments in your life are "now."
But your memories would change, if "memory" is the right word. If the events of your life change, you are a different person. The other life, the sum of those other choices, would be gone. You'd walk through a door, and the room behind you would vanish.
Still, I remember enjoying that story. I think it's in my stacks of books someplace. Maybe I'll come across it again someday.
