A nostalgia fetish
I think I should buy that book!
No, don’t. Let me buy it for you.
But why? No, I can’t let you do that.
No, allow me. I think of it as creating a new memory.
I think I enjoy a memory far more than I enjoy the actual experience. People have strange fetishes, mine is nostalgia. The real experience, when it is happening, is too physical, too tangible, too cluttered. The memory on the other hand is a cherished, enhanced image, filtered to fit the frame of the mind’s eye.
You may remember the walk on beach with the wind blowing and the taste of naariyal-paani but you won’t remember the cantankerous stall-owner, the obnoxious family a few feet away or the hormonal teenagers staring at you. You’ll remember the kiss but you won’t even remember the faint smell of drying fish. You may as well cherish the image of the beautiful stars in the night sky but it will slip your mind that at that moment, you were frantically worried that you’d be late.
When you do remember imperfect reality, it will have been perfected and polished for the showcase of your mind. The memory is the distilled essence of reality…purified to whatever aspect of it appeals most to you. Rare is an experience that is held in its entireity without editing.
'nonnymous on 
Jennifer on 
Anu on 
Lemony on 
1DC
wrote on 2 August 2007 at 19:13
Everything in retrospect is sweeter, the irritation is somehow deleted, the destination to somewhere might have been fabulous, but we forget how arduous the journey was. Its the memory’s way of keeping the sanity I would say. Why be burdened with such things?
2Ginger Girl
wrote on 2 August 2007 at 21:58
O.K. That was mighty cynical…. but sometimes its true
3Rambler
wrote on 3 August 2007 at 10:31
ah selective memory awesome to have…
P.S. I did write a post about privacy. I think you might want to check that out.
4S
wrote on 3 August 2007 at 13:49
Sometimes and a lot of times, you put words to so many things I felt and thought and am like “whoa! This is exactly…”
5ideasmith
wrote on 3 August 2007 at 14:21
@ DC: Fantasy is the mind’s route to escapism?
@ Ginger Girl: And so what? We live in the present imperfect.
@ Rambler: Did!
@ S: Great minds think alike, lady!