online: 3 april 2007
modified: 2 april 2007

31 march 2007 remembering


16:50 ...outdoor cafe... return of clear blue sky and cold dry wind from the north east... but here, out of the wind, the air is warm and springlike... a few people in warm clothes are sitting and talking as the two waiters clear up... a squirrel searches for crumbs among the chair legs... i hear a small bird singing, very quietly, in nearby bushes... and another small bird flies past about 30 centimetres from my face...

...while walking here through the woods i suddenly changed direction to avoid a steep downward slope... as i did so i remembered making the same move at exactly the same spot some days ago... i seemed to be remembering every detail of the slope, and of the tree roots over which i stepped... i wonder now if every detail of our experience can be remembered exactly if the necessary cue is applied?... i suspect that it can - but that each remembering is different (as is proposed in Frederic Bartlett's book Remembering (Cambridge University Press, 1932)...

...i've often noticed that, a day or two after a walk on the heath, i can remember the look of all the people and animals i saw, and the places where i saw them... but i cannot remember much of those i meet in the city ...

...before leaving the cafe i talked with Sergio, from Brazil, who is working as a waiter here while studying english, and eventually political science... he hopes to become a journalist (or perhaps a writer of fiction?)...





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