Remembering

©Richard Wilkinson

Flotsam and jetsam. Ever since I first heard these partner words I have been fond of them. Flotsam is defined as debris in the ocean that was not deliberately thrown overboard, often as the result of a shipwreck or accident. Jetsam describes debris that was deliberately thrown overboard by the crew of a ship in distress, most often to lighten the ship's load.

It is an easy jump of understanding to take these two terms and use them metaphorically in relation to human memory. As we live our lives we make potential memories every day. If we could remember everything our brains would overload  and might possibly explode. 

In reality it is of course impossible to remember everything so a continuous sifting process happens day by day, year by year. We seem to have no conscious ability to retain or discard memories. Our brains do it in spite of us.

I think of what floats upon the surface of our memory as the flotsam and jetsam of life. It's what remains when the vast bulk of potential memory sinks to the ocean floor.

Sometimes I wonder why I can remember this and not that. Why have so many key moments disappeared  and yet I can vividly remember seemingly insignificant moments? I have often contemplated the strange process of remembering. Sometimes I think it's about signposting - in the sense that one's memory picks a range of symbolic scenes or fragments that point to who we really are as individuals - to our essential psychological being.

It can be interesting to compare our filtered memories of past events with someone else who was there at the time. When you get right down to the nitty gritty, you find that the other person's internal editing processes have left them with a very different picture from the one that floats on your own brain's surface.

In a lovely song, Barbra Streisand once sang:-

Memories

May be beautiful and yet

What's too painful to remember

We simply to choose to forget

But that's not how human memory works. We cannot guide the memory at will. Some things will float and maybe get cast up upon some  shore but it is, I contend,  a random process over which we have almost no control.

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Volodymyr the sushi Stealer

Tomorrow’s lunch 

 The secret of making good sushi rice is to infuse and fold in the heavy seasoning, a little sugar and rice vinegar into the still warm rice before putting it somewhere to cool before assembling your Chumaki Rolls. 

I prefer to make chumaki rolls as they are more robust sushi and therefore are able to tolerate thicker fillings, so today as the rice was cooling outside on the patio table , I prepared fillings of pat choi slices, long strips of salmon , wasabi ,creamed cheese with garlic and dobs of sweet crushed peas.

Preparing sushi is the nearest I get to proper mindfullness .

Volodymyr the spunky bantam cockerel was watching everything and tiptoed into the garden under the dogs’ and Albert’s radar and managed to cop a dozen gobfulls before Mary realised what was happening and dropped her rubber chicken 

Volodymyr

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Borscht

 I’m back to work tomorrow so today feels like that awful Sunday night knotty feeling you used to get the say before school.

The community Association put on a soup and roll lunch in aid of Ukrainian Refugees and in support the village school children had designed Ukrainian flags to stand on each table.

Polish Monika , the hall’s caretaker had made Borscht which was absolutely delicious as the obvious choice of soup to have, even the the Velvet Voiced Linda gave us a choice of six from the menu.

I sat with Affable Despot Jason’s father in law and we talked central heating and bara brith for a while.

Mrs Trellis sans her bobble hat was upset that the church was closing and village elders Ian, Nick and David seemed to be putting the worlds rights over tea and cake.

I gave Bron Haul Marion my raffle tickets and I wanted to get back to light the fire and to do jobs 

I’m working four long days in the next five

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Human

 Ukraine

You inspire me

You drive me

You show me

Why I’m proud

You remind me

Of why I fight

Why I live

And why I must continue

To be a human

Full of hope

Joy

And compassion

Lord

Use me

To magnify

To pray

And have

A heart

For humanity

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