How Memory Works
17 11 2007“Time paints in blasts,” - Voltaire
There was a girl in college. She dated a friend of mine. She dressed like Billie Holiday, was French and Dutch, and attended Harvard. Her passions were literature and biochemistry, speaking about either one would cause her to light up. We spoke twice by phone, and we went to Tapas on Newbury Street together. I remember she was someone who made you want to believe in whatever cause she advocated.
She stopped dating my friend. A year or so passed. And then she killed herself.
My friend and I went to her eulogy at Harvard. A young girl, her friend, spoke first.
“I remember Freshmen year,” she said, “we were stuck in the elevator and she and I didn’t know what to do. But we had M&Ms with us. As we waited for help to come get us out of the elevator, we spilled the M&M’s on the floor, took our shoes off and smushed them between our toes as if they were grapes. We laughed for hours that day.”
Smushing M&M’s between her toes.
That image came back to me powerfully today while watching Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. Dustin Hoffman and Nathalie Portman stomp bubble wrap in the park. And there I was, instantly transported to my friend’s eulogy.
There was a girl in college. She smushed M&M’s between her toes…
We remember people because of the strangest things. Its said scent is the sense of memory, and I often find a certain scent will remind me of a person or moment.