When I was in school, I once took a
film course, and in one of the units we talked about non-linear story
telling – when you tell a story out of sequence, like the movie
Memento (though I argue that Memento is a linear story, just told
more or less backwards...)
Anyway, do you know who are the best
non-linear story tellers? CHILDREN!
My kid was recently invited to a movie
birthday party. She had a great time!
Though trying to get her to explain to
me the plot of the movie was like pulling teeth from a fully awake
tiger... And, it was not just her, we were driving her friend home
as well, and he offered little help in deciphering what actually
happened in the movie. The two of them just remembered random bits
of the movie; completely out of order, of course. Basically, they
only told me the parts they liked.
This got me to think if young
children's memory of their daily lives is similar to how they
remember movies and television shows – that is they only remember
things in some random order, and only recall things that they like.
Or as Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice once said “Think
only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
This may explain why my daughter can
recall every embarrassing moment that happened to me in the
last three years and yet cannot seem to remember to sit properly or
to eat faster, as I often have to remind her during dinner.
Oh! And my favourite repeated lecture –
“Please, think before you speak or act.” I swear, I want to tape
that particular 'talk' and whenever I need it, I can just hit the
play button and walk away so that I do not have to hear the sound of
my own voice again. Maybe, my kid honestly just do not remember
these lectures chats, or lost the context associated
with these talks because they do not make her happy.
Though I am not happy with her
selective memory, I am also a bit jealous at the same time. I am not
the type of person who can live in the now. I am always thinking
about the results/consequences of my actions (and sometimes future
actions), or regretting my past mistakes (yes. sometimes I have
trouble sleeping at night).
So sometimes, I look at my daughter
when she is playing and think that it must be nice to be able to just
enjoy the moment, and maybe later that night, forget all about the
bills, the chores, the worries, and just fall asleep thinking about
the fun things we did today.
