An Invitation to Pause

Pause a while

Yesterday's question relating to the years passing ever more rapidly was somewhat rhetorical. I think there is a pretty wide consensus surrounding this phenomenon. Everyone seems to experience it. Now, a theory has come to me tonight. I believe it is to do with the way we lay down memories. When we are young almost everything is new, there is plenty of room in the brain, and we record endless reels and reels of memories. As we get older, there is less that is novel to us, and there doesn't seem to be so much room left in the brain (speaking for myself anyway) so we have to be more conservative. Our new memories are recorded on far fewer reels of tape. When we playback the previous year to review, there is just that much less tape to rewind to get to events in the recent past. With each passing Christmas the previous one seems less distant in the past - because in our heads it is quite literally less distant in terms of the intervening memory. What do you think?

That is a ridiculously unscientific theory, but I would guess that there is some modicum of substance to it. Another explanation could be that we are just too busy to lay down memories like we used to. We let moments slip through our perceptive net, never experienced fully enough to become memories. Which brings me neatly to today's blip. I've always been drawn to this bench somehow. It really does invite you to pause and take in the view. But I have to admit that I've only ever stopped here very briefly. I've never actually sat on that bench, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone else sat on it either. That might have something to do with the fact that it's usually rather damp, but mostly, I suspect, because we're usually far too busy to ever press the pause button on our lives and take stock. I didn't have time today because I was rushing to blip before getting the train to the office, knowing that it would be dark by the time I got home. But next time I will make the effort to stop fully, sit down, and take more than just a moment.

Blipping is certainly helping me to be not so rushed. Having the camera with me while walking and running and cycling is forcing me to seize various moments during the day, the camera stopping them from slipping through the net. The write-up each day helps anchor the image in time and perhaps - as Cymbeline suggests - helps to lay down stronger memories and arrest, however negligibly, that acceleration in the passage of the time.

If you've read this far then take up this invitation now. Pause for a moment on that virtual bench and appreciate the good things of your day - in true Dotty fashion. Make sure that this day doesn't slip completely away. I've hit a slightly reflective note tonight - and compiled a much longer than intended write-up - because I've been stuck for an hour waiting for my train, experiencing the normal misinformation, twice being told to go the wrong platform and almost missing the train I'm on now in the process. Still stuff to sort out for the presentation tomorrow so it will now be a very late night indeed. Apologies that I won't be able to catch up with anyone tonight.

PS While stuck at Shipley not knowing what was going on with the trains the sky turned the most amazing colour. I was cursing not being up on the moor. I haven't experienced a sunset this good all summer. If I hadn't starting waxing philosophical I might have blipped Shipley on Fire instead. Quite contrasting!