Bliss is in the Forgetting
What you know about memory is entirely wrong. It’s time for a new script to replace the old one.
They say ignorance is bliss.
Most of us use the expression as a cautionary tale: that the burden of memory can be overwhelming. It’s true. The world is full of people who have problems letting go of the past, even when that past is filled with trauma—with things we’d rather forget, if only we knew how.
Language is ripe with expressions of advice for letting go and moving on.
Live and let live. Get over yourself. What’s done is done. Let go or be dragged. Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today. And, my favorite, the journey is inevitable; the baggage, optional.
And yet, many people suffer—in ways large and small—from an unwillingness or inability to do what they know is for their own good.
Why is that?
The Meaning We Make
There are many reasons we form, then drag, memories around with us. One of the biggest ones is our near-universal penchant for assigning value to our experiences, primarily as a means of understanding our place among others: our relative social currency—or worth.
