Smell seems to stir memories. Like sound and temperature. Your story has those “memories” embedded in an otherwise nondescript day at the office. Intertidal funk haha!! spring warmth, an Outlook ding. Maybe those elements are broad reminders of your work there and not specific to that day.
Can / should we trust our memories? The truth is probably somewhere in between. A version of it happened but you may be blind to other details after 15 years of reinforcing the ghost story.
If a memory casts another person in a super lofty or wicked way (myself included), I try to have a healthy check on that reality.
I thought a bit about “ghosts from the past”…
Your mom’s passing and funeral are memories but your experience of loss is still happening now and in the future, concurrently fading and fortified by stories like these.
I guess the same questions could be asked about how we read any present situation (or text or film). How all our baggage weights what we hear and understand. Do we trust any of our perceptions as “truth” regardless of when they happened? Should we? Depends on how many tequilas :)
#1 Can we trust our memories?
So many chewy thoughts…
Smell seems to stir memories. Like sound and temperature. Your story has those “memories” embedded in an otherwise nondescript day at the office. Intertidal funk haha!! spring warmth, an Outlook ding. Maybe those elements are broad reminders of your work there and not specific to that day.
Can / should we trust our memories? The truth is probably somewhere in between. A version of it happened but you may be blind to other details after 15 years of reinforcing the ghost story.
If a memory casts another person in a super lofty or wicked way (myself included), I try to have a healthy check on that reality.
I thought a bit about “ghosts from the past”…
Your mom’s passing and funeral are memories but your experience of loss is still happening now and in the future, concurrently fading and fortified by stories like these.
I guess the same questions could be asked about how we read any present situation (or text or film). How all our baggage weights what we hear and understand. Do we trust any of our perceptions as “truth” regardless of when they happened? Should we? Depends on how many tequilas :)
Well, you have made me look forward to the next installment. Thanks Sean.