The following piece of writing was inspired by Neil Gaiman's tribute to Ray Bradbury, which can be read by following a link in my previous post or using the one in this post.
If you've not read the previous post, I would recommend doing so, as it sort of explains the premise and the background to this piece of writing
-Craig
*****
Remembering things is something we become proficient in at
an early age, from the day we are born we are needed to remember things,
nothing that concerns us in particular, but the things that become second
nature when we grow older, the eating, the toiletry needs, the safety
mechanisms, all of those things, as said, when we grow older, those things
become second nature to us and we can free up a memory slot in our brains for
new things as those become autonomous.
As we grow older, however, we need to use up these memory
banks, for new things, words, names, colours, all of the things we learn from
our parents and the things we learn in the most basic education forms, nursery,
kindergarten, and those relevant to over worldly countries, to which the
aforementioned do not apply. As we progress through the varying education
systems, more and more things are added to list of autonomy, writing, speaking,
drawing, or for those of the other inclination, music and science, we remember
our closest friends names, and the names of those teachers that we like, and
often the ones that we don’t.
Although, as we do grow older and older, there are new
things to remember, and those that do not become autonomous are most often
forgotten, tell me, when was the last time you used algebraic formulae outside
of a maths lesson, unless you're a maths teacher, in which case, tell me when
was that last time you wrote a short story or critiqued a piece of writing
within an English room, we often forget things, when we stop doing them over
long periods of time.
With this sudden new found idea of forgetting things often
comes the forgetting of people, people whom you may have not spoken to in a
couple of years, or have lost contact with, for one reason or another and with
that, essentially, an identity is lost, at least, to those who have forgotten
the person, whether a lost friend or, a celebrity that has died, and his work
lost to those who were aware of him.
People, most often celebrities, think that they will get to
live forever, or at least, their name and their work will get to live forever,
the sad part being, this isn’t necessarily the case, sure, people may live on
for hundreds and hundreds of years, through their works, although eventually,
all the people who have either studied him in lesson, or read his or her work
in their own time, will have passed on themselves, without helping future
generations discover that well known person, and they will pass into the long
passage of time, and be forgotten.
In this sense, it can be said, and people do say, that we
die twice, once in a physical state, where people come to mourn, and remember
how well your life was, and the good times you’d had, but then, as time passes
on, you die again, in a mental state, where memories are often lived too many
times, and pressed to the backs of minds, to not be seen again.
It’s often just the nature and the passage of time, that
draws out the memories and the identity of the person in question, if people
think too dearly, and too in depth about this, it could get them worried that
they won’t live on, long enough to be remembered, which for some, may be the
case, although more often or not, they will live on, perhaps not as long as
some, although their family, will keep remembering, and keep telling future
generations of the wonderful things you have done, which is true for each and
every one of us.
If you think someone is worth remembering, and worth other
people remembering, pass their name, or their work, if they’re the person who
has written, or sung, or played on, or have drawn something, just, pass it on
to your friends and maybe, just maybe, they'll live for that little bit longer.
