Thursday, October 02, 2014

Memories

"The only reason everyone holds on to memories so tightly, is because they are the only things that don't change when everything and everyone else does."

Memories. They're all we have.

Of things that once were. Of different times. Of different people.

We cling on to them, like a hope that never comes. When reality gets too much, we escape into our memories. We go back in time and relive the moments we treasure so much. The fleeting moments in time when we felt joy; when we laughed; when we were at peace; when, in one of those rare instances, we felt truly happy.

We close our eyes and tell ourselves to stay strong. But the memories haunt us, stubborn and persistent. That's when the line between a happy memory and a nightmare becomes blurred. Where does it start and where does it end?

But like the world turns, things change. And memories are all we have left.

A wistful recollection of times that, looking back, seemed as though you were living in a dream. A window into the past that can never be reconciled with the present reality.

The people; the places; the sights; the sounds; the sensations; the emotions. They're all but gone now.

You don't know who those people are now. You don't recognise the place anymore. You don't remember your feelings any longer.

You're crushed. Your memories of those things make it even worse.

Now, the only evidence of their existence lies in the recesses of our mind; faint recordings of life looped over and over again in our mind's eye, until one day the tape wears out and can no longer be played back. Then, they're gone forever, like they never happened. Time goes by, and old memories are forgotten as newer ones take over.

Those people never existed. Those places were never visited. Those emotions were never felt.

You won't even realise that everything used to be different.

As age takes its toll on the physiology of the human brain, our memories fade away into blank nothingness. A silent but malignant force that nobody can ever see coming.

We forget everything; how it used to be, how it all changed, and that it even existed.

Life itself fades before our very eyes.

And no power in the world can save it.