Importance of Forgotten Memories
What the person had found was not just a box full of old things, but that was forgotten moments from a history that was long locked away. Many ways the box acted as if it were a time capsule, holding inside stories and emotions which had been forgotten by everyone but the innermost family circle. It reminded one and all of just how so much is made of good old memories and their role in shaping our identities.
The contents of the box were emotionally valuable. Each picture and letter told a different story, giving an insight into the lives of people who lived, loved, and fought to take life as it came in ways that could almost be termed alien to the modern world. However, through those pieces, the individual was able to connect with a past that is still very much alive in the memories of those who lived it. It was almost as though the box contained not old items, but another world into which one could travel and learn, reflect, and, above all, feel a sense of continuity.
But here too, it raises questions about the very nature of memory itself, about how we save our memories. With the advent of high-tech devices that can instantly freeze a moment in time, it is too easy to lose sight of just what precious, not to say, costly keepsakes are. However, the box had also made the person realize that there is something irreplaceable about holding a letter in your hands, or gazing at a photograph taken long before you were born. These physical items turn out to be anchor points to the past, reminding and allowing reflection in ways a digital image or text cannot.
