El Guamo → Natagaima → Villavieja → Neiva

[amw]

I woke up in El Guamo on Good Friday to the sound of nothing and wrote a journal entry. By the time i got on my bike, the town was a bit more busy, albeit in an obviously holiday mode. I continued heading south toward the Tatacoa desert, with a plan to stop at Natagaima if i was tired, or another village or hotel along the way if i still had energy

Comments

[amw]

I think that memories point is worth something... Sometimes when i have Skype chats with R, she'll remind me of something we did or something i said years ago that i've completely forgotten. It can be quite pleasant to rediscover something i forgot about. On the other hand, you could say that if i forgot it then it obviously wasn't all that memorable of an experience in the first place. I do find that a lot of friends groups often go back rehashing "the good old days" which can be fun the first time but after a while it feels like nothing new ever happens, so what's the point?

I wonder, do memories matter? I think when i was younger i used to want to hold on to them a lot more than i do now. And that's fortunate, because the older i get, the more things do disappear into the mist. I used to be terrified of dementia, of losing my memory of who i was and the people around me, but now i'm not so sure it would matter. Like, as long as on the inside i am still happy to discover new things, what does it matter what i forgot? What mostly scares me now is losing the capacity to look after myself, period. That's when i would rather die.

[daphnep]

I wonder, do memories matter?

I have been thinking about this since you posed it. My short answer, after the fun of trying on the opposite stance for a while, is “oh, yes!”…and I suspect that your truest answer is also yes, otherwise you would have a hard time documenting your travels as you do. Even if you never reread your stories, the very act of typing them helps confirm them to your brain. I also think that we here on lj are, in a way, your virtual traveling companions, and I really value that you share your experiences and build your community this way. Memories can be shared communally, and your readers help hold yours for you even when no-one else has joined you on your journey.

[amw]

This is a concise but provocative answer. I have been thinking about it too. And the answer is... yes, i think i do write my experiences here publicly as a way of creating memories. I don't go back and read my old entries explicitly, but i do occasionally look something up in ljArchive to see when it happened, and it's often interesting to read what i was thinking at the time. And it's always nice when a long-time friend comments on something happening in my life now, comparing it to something they read from before. So... i think you are right. Memories do count for something, and sharing an experience (whether in-person at the time, or through writing later on) is a good way of reinforcing them.