-Dr. Seuss-Psychologists indicate that all our memories have a very close relationship with emotions.
Last update: Augusts 04, 2020
The value of positive memories is one of the main elements of stability, a refuge that can protect us. As Pio Baroja said, “In large part we are the extension of our past; the result of a memory ".
In this perspective, the brain is an organ capable of storing, ordering and prioritizing all our memories. Although outdated, the metaphor of the computer has been used in psychology for years to explain the brain, and especially memory; the city of memories.
“Sometimes you don't know the value of a moment until it becomes memory”.
-Dr. Seuss-
Psychologists indicate that all of our memories have a very close relationship with emotions. Precisely for this reason, when we focus on a certain memory, we are able to perfectly recall the emotions felt at the time.
A pleasant memory can restore lost inner peace or rebuild a lost self-esteem. Conversely, if the experience you relive belongs to a bitter memory, it brings with it emotions that are not at all positive.
The value of memories
Some time ago a wonderful story about the value of memories came into our hands; an important meeting, after many years, with the past. In May 2017 a 14-year-old boy named Patryk Lessman was on vacation with his family in a summer residence, by the Jeziorak lake (Poland).
The young man spent his days building wooden houses and fishing. One day, by chance, while he was in a wooded area he came across two ancient tin cans, and immediately informed the parents of the discovery. These alerted the local authorities, who broke into the woods equipped with metal detectors in search of further objects.
A few months later, following a detailed analysis of the discovery, a press conference was called to inform the community of the incident. The two containers found were filled with the personal items and family mementos of Count Hans Joachim Finckenstein, in the past owner of that wooded area.
Among the various objects found in the first container there were also the last wishes of the count, the coat of arms and the shield of the Finckenstein family (an old Prussian aristocratic family), Hans Joachim's passport and even a diary written by him during the First World War. In the second container there were instead the uniform he wore during the Second World War and a large number of postcards and poems of his daughters.
Hans Joachim Finckenstein was born in 1978 and lived through both world conflicts. During the summer of 1944, in the face of the Soviet advance, Hans Joachim and his wife Hildegard sent their daughters to Pomerania (a territory between Germany and Poland), where they remained in hiding. The various objects found, on the other hand, were always buried in that period, even if it was never clear whether it was the father or the mother who took care of them.
How a past event can remind us of the value of memories
The searches made it possible to trace the count's youngest daughter in Germany, more precisely in Waldtraut, still alive. This of her, seeing the objects belonging to her father, she was deeply moved, bursting into tears as she squeezed her parent's shoes. The woman told reporters that every night when her father accompanied them to bed, she and her sister clung to her shoes and laughed at her until sleep overcame them.
She was also able to remember some of the rediscovered poems, written by herself more than seventy years earlier. With her eyes filled with tears of joy, to the reporters who wanted to interview her she said: “I've always wanted to write. My mother insisted that I learn to sew and embroider, but it was clear that my future was in books ”.
He remembered the summer storms on Lake Jeziorak and the smell of wet earth: “Those endless evenings when we couldn't go out because of the rain and I recited poems, while my sister invoked the arrival of the sun with music; the whole family enthusiastically enjoyed the show. It was a wonderful moment in my life, which I can now recover thanks to these memories ”.
This story reminds us how precious time is when motivated by real and deep desires. We are often used to postponing what is important, hiding our emotions. But every moment is charged with the magic that we ourselves give it. If you could draw your best memory, how would you draw it?
"Memories are a way to hold on to what we love, what we are and the things we don't want to lose"
-Anonymous-
