Making A Memory Again And Again

Today is a day that we have set aside to remember those who have passed on before us. The way that memory works in the human brain is not like popping in a tape of those memories and hitting play. There isn't some video file for such and such day that we can just find on our hard drive and run. When we remember something or someone, our brain tries to recreate the conditions that were present when that memory was formed. The smells, the emotions, the lighting - all of the different neural pathways that were fired up when we first lived through that memory the brain tries to light up again as close to the original experience as possible. Reliving a memory is much more like baking a batch of cookies from the same recipe than it is merely running a video in our head. The point of all this is to say that when we remember someone, we are rewiring our brain to match up as closely as the way that it was when we made that memory. When we remember someone, our brain feels the same as when we were with them, and in a way, when we remember someone, it is as if they are with us in that moment. I know that seems like a trite platitude, the kind of hollow reassurance that's murmured as some attempt to fill this gaping hole in our life, but the point I'm trying to make is that, neurologically speaking, there is very little difference from the original experience and the memories we conjure up. The effect on our brain that a person had when they were physically with us and the effect on our brain that our memory of that person has are remarkably similar. Memories are not dead, static things. Memories are alive, fresh, created new for the first time. When we experience a memory, that is the first time that we have that specific experience, that exact configuration of firing neurons in that exact sequence. It may be similar and nearly identical to every other time we have relived that memory, but it is a brand new experience nonetheless. We will not have the opportunity in this life to do many of the things that we had hoped and dreamed to do with those who have passed on, but in a very real sense, on a neurological level, every time we remember them we are creating new experiences with them.