memory

If there is anything I have been ruminating about lately - it has been memory. When I am with any of my peers, (people in their 50's) often the conversation goes to memory. There is a realization that we don't remember stuff the way that we used to. I think for me, it is probably right now, a blessing in that I cannot procrastinate. I have to do things as they come up because I can't remember them any more. But there is this sense of .....is this the beginning of something?

Because my high school class celebrated their 40th reunion this month, I had contact recently with someone that I grew up with. I have not seen her for 40 years and was not able to attend the reunion. As we communicated a little bit via email I tried to bring up memories in my own mind of my life (and our life together) from 5th grade through 11th. And I don't remember all that much. One of the reasons why I would have liked to attend was to stir up the memories.
One of my friends has talked about being with siblings and doing "family archeology" and remembering is part of that. Because the events of our lives have formed us in ways we probably don't realize and my interpretation of events NOW in my 50's is often different from when I experienced things at the time.

As a pastor I have spent time this week with two parishioners who have real memory problems. One is in his 80's and the other has experienced strokes. Our brain is certainly a mystery - how some things are retained and others are forgotten. For each of these people, however, when I asked them if they wanted to pray "The Lord's Prayer" there was remembering. Absolute remembering.

As a preacher I often in sermons talk about memory - in the sense of remembering our blessing and remembering our miracles and remembering the very real presence of God with us. And I wonder - especially about the folks who in their later years have memory issues - how they are experiencing God's presence. And maybe that is our task - to visit and help them to remember.