Memory via the Senses

How many times have we caught a faint scent passing with the wind and an image of something out of the past floods our mind, or a flash catches the corner of our eye and a friend, relative, or even a stranger who has long since passed away is remembered? We all have struggled to recall that person over there…we know we have seen her before…or we stand in confusion in a new place that we have been before. Moreover, how often do we explore these queries, write them down, ponder them, savor them as parts of ourselves from long ago that have helped mold us into who and where we are today? Most often, we pass them by with an “oh well” or an “I’ll have to think about that when I have more time.” The concept of sensory recall was the premise of my exercise in last week’s class.

I asked that we think of a smell, an image, a taste, or a sound that triggers a memory and we were to write about both the trigger and the response. After reading the short paragraphs, I must say that everyone conveyed some powerful thoughts. There were smells of grease, cow manure, horse manure (I’m wondering about the preoccupation with manure), the ocean, chlorine, fall, leather, hospitals. The sense of taste included cigarettes, wine, and melting butter dripping from corn on the cob…these tastes sound like a party. There was one sound trigger, the sound of migrating geese.

After we read a couple of these memories, everyone wrote what they thought of the exercise. In reviewing those responses, it seems we all have memories that are brought out by some event that stimulates our senses, yet rarely do we pursue them, or write about them…and maybe we should…we have traded a part of our life for them. Thanks to everyone for your help in a quest for triggers that shake the rafters of my own mind.