quarantine

i was having a discussion with my chicas the other day about memories. u can create them but u can't erase them. not purposely, anyway. u can lose them... but i don't think u can simply walk away from a memory. the whole idea behind 'losing' is that u have no control over it. u can't decide what specific memory u're gonna lose and when u're gonna lose it. and finding a memory isn't so simple either, cuz until u do (if u ever do at all), u'll never know if it's truly gone or just dormant. so what can u control about ur memories?

my suggestion was this--quarantine. accept that u can't make urself forget, accept that it's still embedded in ur mind... but isolate it. for analogy's sake, suppose memory is a person standing in front of u, close enough that u can reach out and touch him. in this case, my idea of 'quarantine' would be to close ur eyes and keep ur hands to ur side. this doesn't change or delete the existence of that person (ie. memory), but it kinda miminizes it, don't u think? anyway, things get a bit complicated with 'active' memories versus 'passive' ones. think of 'passive' as a person standing in front of u, doing and saying nothing... 'active' would be a person standing in front of u, wearing strong cologne, talking his heart out and reaching out to touch ur arm every once in a while. u can close ur eyes and plug ur ears, but u can't tell ur skin to ignore his touch or disable ur olfactory receptors so u don't register his scent. i believe that 'active' memories are those that jump out at u in certain ways that u can do nothing about... in which case, i suppose quarantine can't apply, since partial quarantine makes no sense. and anyway, how many memories are just passive? because quarantine can only be effective on memories that are passive in the strictest sense.

ok, i'm gonna stop... i'm giving myself a headache :P