Memorable Passage

"My mother said it was like a cassette tape you could never rewind. But it was hard to remember you couldn't rewind it while you were listening to it. And so you'd forget and fall into the music and listen and then, without you even knowing it, the tape would suddenly end." --Tell the Wolves I'm Home.

Yet, another passage from this book that has its roots so deeply plunged into my every day life. I've always had such a hard time staying in the present. It's really not much of a surprise since I'm at such a transitional point in my life, but when I'm caught up in the past or future it makes me wonder what I'm missing out on in the present moment. I worry about not being able to look back on something the way I'd like to, and while I'm worrying about that I'm absent from what's happening around me. I always like to make sure that I can enjoy details of a memorable event with crystal clarity when it's possible, but while I'm worried about what I'm going to remember, the present will be flying past me like a train that I have hop onto. Over the summer I learned that creating and analyzing are two separate processes. While that is certainly true for making anything in the fine arts, I'm starting to realize it's the same for memories in a way. I just wonder if it helps to be completely saturated in the moment and then go back and remember what you think affected you whether its seconds, days, or years. Is there even a way, an algorithm, to remember things the way you'd like to or is each and every second different than the last?