The Best Computer
I had a beautiful thought the other day. One should have beautiful thoughts all the time, but sometimes they just grab ya unexpected like. My friend David and I went for a wee jaunt in the wild Whinny Wood near Loch Lomond on Sunday. I’ve known David since moving to Scotland in 2000, as he was my upstairs neighbour and a fellow student at the RSAMD. As old friends do, we chatted aimlessly as we sludged through copious mud and puddles in our welly boots.
David re-counted a story from our shared past, a party or other in great detail and as he unfolded the story I remembered the time like it was yesterday, the textures, the emotions, the people… and it occurred to me, that although I hadn’t “forgotten” that particular story, I needed David to remember it again -for me.
It’s like we’ve put such huge stock in technology, in backing-up our data, in making sure we have photographs of every moment, every experience, and yet the greatest ‘computer’ is ourselves. It is our relationships that cement our reality, that bring us back to ourselves.
Whilst this machine and web of networks is extraordinary in connecting us to a vast array of information and people, only our personal relationships can connect us back to ourselves. And that’s a beautiful thing, because it’s for the life.
I’ve sold 90% of the things I previously owned. In the next months I’ll be offloading the other 9%, keeping only the vital 1% of things I had accumulated. As I pack away various bits of minutae to charity shop and ebay there is a momentary pull – will I forget? Will I be forgotten? And then I remember that beautiful thought, the people whom I live within, and who live within me.
