Many years ago I started to write some of my
memories from my youth down (and they are still around somewhere on Floppy
Discs,) but I was discouraged when someone challenged my memories and so I stopped.
Recently however, I have been encouraged by my son to jot some more down on
paper. Well at least, on the computer. So I am currently doing so now, but in
no particular order or chronology, but simply when currently inspired to jot
them down. This brings me to the point of this particular Blog. Whose Memory is
correct?
Often, as I found to my discouragement, others
memories disagree with ours. Yes, this can be so, but does that make any of
them/us fully right or fully wrong? Remember these memories are of how one
particular person experienced a certain event, and often people can experience
the same event from a different angle or perspective to you and have a
completely different memory to yours.
When
I was not even a month past 11 years of age, the 1962 Bushfires passed around
our house and so has become an indelible time line in my life, with just a few
memories before it and a host after it. Getting married; Becoming a believer In
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour; Going to Africa; and coming back from
Africa, have also become major defining times in my life.
Going back to the 62 Fires, are my memories of
it correct? Depends it seems on who you talk to. For instance I was talking to
my two brothers earlier this year about the 62 Bushfires. My oldest brother was there at the time, as
was I, but our other brother was on Holiday with a mate and his family at
Philip Island. During our discussion
earlier this year I mentioned one aspect about the Fire and a certain Gentleman
who was there and who took charge of things where I was. My oldest brother
started to disagree strongly saying that the person whom I mentioned wasn’t
even there then. At which point our other brother (who wasn’t there at the time
of the Fire) backed my story, saying that dad had often mentioned that the man
I had mentioned, had indeed been there, and taken charge of things because initially,
dad was not back from fighting the fire elsewhere.. At which point my older
brother remembered that he and I, had in fact been on different sides of the
Creek and with a different group of people, hence our experiences and memories
differed greatly. Not because either of us were wrong but because both of us
saw and experienced it from a different side of the Creek and from a different
angle and perspective.
So, if someone’s memories differ from yours,
it is possible that they or you are wrong but more likely that they have seen
and experienced it from different angles. So please check your facts before commenting
and if they, or even I, have gotten the facts wrong, please forgive and please
gently correct where needed. However, do remember that even though many people
may experience the same event, that doesn’t mean that they experienced it in
the same way or angle as you, and thus may well remember it differently to you.
Again this does not make either of you right or wrong. It just means that you may have experienced
it from different angles.
