Remembering Every Day of Your Life
I recently read an article about a remarkable (very interesting) woman named Jill Price. She published a memoir (book about her own life) called The Woman Who Can’t Forget. Jill is a 42-year-old woman who can remember every day of her life. She can remember what day of the week it was (Monday, Tuesdays…), what the weather was like that day, and what she did during that day.
A neurobiologist (a scientist who studies how messages move around people’s bodies, such as from the brain to the arms and legs) studied (researched) Jill for five years. He gave her a lot of tests and determined (came to the conclusion; decided) that she was not faking it (pretending; saying that she is something that she is not) and truly had this incredible memory (ability to remember).
The article says that Jill cannot decide whether her ability is a blessing (something to be thankful for) or a curse (something that causes a lot of pain and suffering). She can remember the details of all of the good times, but she can also remember all of the bad times, too. She says in the book,
“Imagine being able to remember every fight you ever had with a friend, every time someone let you down (did not do something they were supposed to do or that they promised to do), all the stupid mistakes you’ve ever made.”
Would you want the ability to remember every day of your life? What could or would you do with this ability?
~ Lucy
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 am
Hi everyone,
My English is not good, but I try to talk about my ideas. Actually, Jill Price is a very strange woman. It’s the first time that I hear this story. Thank you Lucy very much. Me, I don’t want to remember everything, because I will be very tired. I want to remember all of the good times, but it is not possible. If I have this ability, then it’s my own catastrophe. Hope that I won’t have it.
Have a nice day.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 am
Dear Lucy
You and Jeff always choose subjects that , besides help us to improve our English skills, let us know very interesting articles issued at USA media.Thanks a lot for your effort to make our learning activities more pleasant.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
Humans are the only beast that stumble on the same stone, once and again, several times, so long as we live. Having a memoir like this woman it should be easy not to stumble on for ever as do other animals along their lives.
So it should be nice to have such a good memoir if I could control feelings, what it is really very difficult, so I would try to remember only good things, good times, and so on. Keeping very close other memories and not letting them to interfere each day I would live.
Theory is quite good, but as real life…..No, I don’t like to have such a memoir at all, I have quite enough to complicate my life so much, that I do not want nothing more, please.
I have heard a theory that say: If you want to be happy you need a big heart and a little memory, and I think it is true.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Remembering everything or forgetting everything.
We are perhaps (I’m sure) better between these two extremes.
… For 20 years, Clive Wearing has been forgetting everything that just happened.
All day long, he believes he has just woken from a deep haze.
Now, his wife has written a biography capturing his daunting fight for normalcy in a world that has no center …
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,354754,00.html
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Well, the first think comes to mind is: If I would be like Jill, I would be a perfect english-speaking person
Because I would remember all of english podcasts :-D. There is a s-f book named “Shadow of Torturer” written by Gene Wolfe. The main hero is a person - who like Jill - never forgets anythink. As he says in book; this is rahter curse then bless… We, in life face more bad, then good events. But we remember almost only good ones.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Remembering Every Day of eslpod.com should make me an English better ???
June 24th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Hello!
Once I read a book called The Small Book About The Big Memory. It was telling about a person, a man who was forgetting nothing. As far as I remember scientists was conducting experiments on him for 20 years, by trying to understand how his memory worked. Of course, they had been suggesting to him to memorize a lot of the most different stuff, and after passing 20 years he was be able to recollect all that !
Definitely such people appear in the world from time to time, but they are no more than an exception. I think their lives are not so easy to live as they are different from the most too much. And I guess it often happens that ordinary people aren’t ready to accept them as they are
June 24th, 2008 at 2:17 am
If you are interested, you can read a short story by Jorge Luis Borges titled “Funes el Memorioso”. It`s about a man who suffers an accident and, after it, he can remember every previous moment of his life.
What happens is that he spends such a long time remembering everything that has happened in his life that he has no time enough for living and he spends time lying in bed staring at the top of the room.
I think it`s a very good story about memory and forgetting.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:56 am
It is an interesting story, This kind of ability can be really useful in some way. But I don’t think I want it. Being able to forget must be also an ability. I have read a tale from a mythology. It says Forgetting is a gift from a god to make our each live much easer to get through.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Hi everybody,
I think the ability to forget is absolutely a bless and a gift from God, I don’t think we can live in peace with ourselves or others if we remember everything that happend including bad ones. Being able to forget such details from the past makes us feel free and ready to enjoy the present and look forward to the future. In every aspects of life, I think there should be a balance between the two extreme parts; as it is said in a proverb :” The best of the situations is which is in the medium” (I tried to transalte it from arabic language).
By the way it’s a great effort what you’re doing Dr. Lucy and Dr. Jeff and all the team’s members. Thank you so so much !
June 24th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Hello..
I want to thank you for your posting. It is awesome!!! It really helps me study English. I happened to find this website several months ago, and so far, I visit this website almost everyday.
I dont’ think her ability is a blessing. If I were Jill, I would be dying from extreme stress. Remembering all of my mistakes and bad memories would prevent me from challenging new things. I don’t wanna have that abililty even though it could help study english. hehe..
August 18th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Surely! It would be nice cause it would help me to improve my English even faster!