The Folly of 'Making Memories'

On Memory and Forgettory

I often seem to see ads that offer experiences that will ‘make memories’. I have also heard some my children talk of the same aspiration, partly, no doubt, because they are fed messages that this is a good thing. But I’m not so sure.

What are memories? The corpse of an experience. And to pursue an experience in the hope that it will make a memory is getting things the wrong way round. It’s as if we can only experience life in the past, or in the future. But there is only the present moment, ever, even when when you are remembering the past. In creating memories we are merely creating ghosts.