Lost memories & lost context

[MoreCoffee]

It strikes me that every time one of my quite elderly friends dies the whole world loses memory and the context that is needed to explain and understand written records. So much visual, emotional, aural, olfactory context goes with the departed and so much culture memory that one wonders how we can ever really know the past as it really was.

 

[Lamb]

I concur!!

It's scary to think what the world will be like 100 years from now.

Do you keep a diary or blog?

 

[psalms 91]

I think the next ten years is scary

 

[Rens]

I used to read those books from Corrie ten Boom about before the war, the twenties and even from 100 years before, her granddad had written letters. She writes so good, it's as if you're there.

 

[onlyme]

It strikes me that every time one of my quite elderly friends dies the whole world loses memory and the context that is needed to explain and understand written records. So much visual, emotional, aural, olfactory context goes with the departed and so much culture memory that one wonders how we can ever really know the past as it really was.

Yes, it's sad. I know ppl who suffer from Alzheimers; sad to see their decline.

I think in Australia, the concept of oral history is very important, right? especially among Aboriginal people. Like, it can be valuable for the oral traditions in Pitjantjatjara to be added to a database before it's lost; the interaction between oral tradition, landscape and history is very interesting, like for instance at Ayers Rock/Uluru and the Olgas (places I would love to visit).

 

[Lamb]

Yes, it's sad. I know ppl who suffer from Alzheimers; sad to see their decline.

I think in Australia, the concept of oral history is very important, right? especially among Aboriginal people. Like, it can be valuable for the oral traditions in Pitjantjatjara to be added to a database before it's lost; the interaction between oral tradition, landscape and history is very interesting, like for instance at Ayers Rock/Uluru and the Olgas (places I would love to visit).

Are the oral traditions accurate?

 

[onlyme]

Are the oral traditions accurate?

Memory is a strange thing and variations can occur over time and space. In Australia, with huge spaces and with indigenous peoples spread over a wide area and with a past not documented in writing beyond several decades or a century or two, oral tradition is strong, although varied; so there can be variations to legends; this does not lessen the value of recording and documenting legends.

Ppl with Alzheimers are in a different category, of course; but it's all about memory.

 

[Lamb]

Memory is a strange thing and variations can occur over time and space. In Australia, with huge spaces and with indigenous peoples spread over a wide area and with a past not documented in writing beyond several decades or a century or two, oral tradition is strong, although varied; so there can be variations to legends; this does not lessen the value of recording and documenting legends.

Ppl with Alzheimers are in a different category, of course; but it's all about memory.

My mother-in-law suffered from dementia before she passed. Her memory took her to some odd times to ask questions. On one visit she asked me when we got married (her son and I have been married 26 years) and I knew it meant a lot to her but didn't want to tell her how long it was so I said it was a while ago. She asked, "Was I there?" OH yes!! "Was I drunk because I don't remember it!" It was funny and horrible at the same time.

 

[onlyme]

My mother-in-law suffered from dementia before she passed. Her memory took her to some odd times to ask questions. On one visit she asked me when we got married (her son and I have been married 26 years) and I knew it meant a lot to her but didn't want to tell her how long it was so I said it was a while ago. She asked, "Was I there?" OH yes!! "Was I drunk because I don't remember it!" It was funny and horrible at the same time.

Yes, sad.

Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba does not remember the Eurovision Song Contest which his group won in the 70s.