Have you ever reminisced with an old friend or family member about an event only to find out that you both have different memories? That happened to me the other day as I was recounting a childhood story. My friend stopped me half-way through, laughing and wondering if we were talking about the same event. She had her side of the story and I had mine – both so different that it made us pause and think about what else in our memories that might be skewed from our singular perspective.
Try this: with a pen and journal write out a story from your past (that involved at least one other person). Write out what you remember, what you smelled, what you heard…everything that comes to mind. Write out where your head was at (in general, not from or because of the event) - were you happy? Sad? Confused? Anxious?
NOW place your memories to the side for a moment, and put yourself in the other person’s shoes…first, write out everything you remember about the person’s life at that time – were they happy, lonely, angry – how were they feeling about themselves and their place in the world? Now that you’re sufficiently in their shoes, describe the event from their point of view…
What (if anything) changed? Isn’t it amazing how the event looks different from their point of view? Makes you wonder about everything that is stored in our memories – it’s all colored by our age, our circumstances, our world view – everything is open to interpretation isn’t it?
Kinda fun to see that things are always carved in stone.
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