Memory: The Essential Spark (Part 2)

Circling the Periphery

I revisit a key passage in my first installment of "Memory:  The Essential Spark": 

"One cannot dependably embark upon a new beginning, however, until he can harness his present reality -- however beautiful or ugly it may be -- to the visceral rhythms and textures of his past.  This fusion of present and past is the essential spark that will propel him forward with significance.  The present moment, alone, packs no such momentum." 

In this passage, did I mean to say that a traumatized person with amnesia must fill in his largest "blank spots" with memory before he can move on with his life?

Emphatically "No."  That would leave the amnesiac's life "on hold" indefinitely.

While the amnesiac's worthy goal would be to fill in his blank spots with substantial recall, this cannot necessarily occur "soon."  Nor is it always and everywhere possible.

The amnesiac can, however, work creatively with the "life material" he still has.  Songs, scents, and tastes, for example, are often noteworthy for "bringing us back" to given times in our lives.  These can be useful sensory aids to reaching our most uplifting memories that remain much closer to the surface.

By utilizing the memory he still possesses, the amnesiac can at least begin to circle the periphery of the forgotten parts of his life.  He can rekindle some of his old interests, his old hobbies.  He can begin to cultivate, anew, his old talents.  He can pick up the threads from his previous life by revisiting those positive avenues of pursuit that still remain viable.  He can begin to feel, through sensory and emotional "cues," his visceral memory of himself. 

All of this serves to link the amnesiac back to the familiar old "rhythms" and "textures" of his past.  There is an undeniable movement and power to this reconnection with the sense of self.  Synthesis with "the old self" has the domino effect of strengthening the entire person and setting him back on the path to real growth. This, in turn, exponentially increases his ability to recall the smaller, more routine elements of his past existence.  Recall becomes, now, a continual and expanding process, however mundane the details of recall may seem.  

In this way, the amnesiac is effectively placed "back in Time."  He is once again a player on the field of Life.

Simultaneously, the ground is also prepared for his potential recollection of bigger and more challenging "missing chapters."