Memory And Writing: Part One

A wide perspective shows the sign in its surroundings; setting, context.
Such is the case when seeing the sign of the Gospel and its historical context.
What is written grants a visual image when following rational conclusions to their end.

How can one affirm what happened in the past?

If we have difficulty remembering what we had for lunch or dinner a few days ago, what about important or extraordinary events?

We may be apt to remember a tasty meal, or a first-time visit to a new place.

However, a place frequented or the same meal repeated will likely not be remembered from previous visits or the same meal... unless something extraordinary happening at that place or during that meal.

Memories will accompany events (event with location or meal and so on).

Extraordinary events are usually repeated in our minds and talked about to others.

When such events are written down, whether that very same day or many days removed, the core reality of the event is affirmed despite the likelihood of fuzzy details.

A simple example regarding memory is a very sobering day notoriously called "9/11".

Anyone old enough to remember the events of that day likely remembers where they were and who they were with when they first heard, or saw, those events unfold.

For those who were physically present, they likely hold a stronger memory than those far removed watching via television or listening to the radio for reasons of real-time and location sights, sounds, smells, etc..

Although certain difficult events can be blocked (purposely or by mental withdrawal), other events can be purposely retained by human effort.

We may make an effort of remembering a certain something, likely by repeating it in our minds.. or talking about it.

I remember walking into my grandparent's living room that particular morning.

My maternal grandfather points out what is happening, and it seems like a surreal scene to me.

There was my dear maternal grandfather quite shocked at what he was watching.

I too sat in astonishment as I saw one building smoldering... and moments later watching live a plane fly into the adjacent building.

I could go into further detail about my thoughts and memories, but this example supports how something quite extraordinary sticks out in our minds.

That event also anchors other memories from our lives, of that same day or what that point in time in our lives, and previous or past days.

Much how a certain song somehow etches a point in time in our lives, so can visual images or extraordinary events do the same.

I don't remember what I was wearing that morning, or what I had to eat that day, but I do remember sitting there with my grandfather and certain memories etched into my mind reflecting my life at that time.

I considered how this was making him feel, what his thoughts were... fear or fury or fatality.

This is also, I think, the human experience from the ancient past.

Despite a virtual record or things in print to remind us today, or allowing us to relive a particular event through the experience of another human, what was the ancient past like regarding things remembered?

I think humans also recollected certain things that were extraordinary to them... and they attached to such events their current state of mind and their lives as they were.

I think humans in times past talked more about certain events, and their conversations acted like how a newspaper or a book acts today.

In some places, the past didn't have a daily news service reminding them or repeating to them what happened... but some places had periodic accountings of political events written by scribes.

People continually talked about events and likely repeated it over and over as they tried to explain the 'whys' and 'hows' and such... and the scribes had such sources to deduce their summaries from.

So I postulate this: it is possible that any past event, although not written down for posterity immediately after it happened, can be kept accurate in people's minds during one generation and onto the subsequent generation... since the subsequent generation has also heard the retelling of events.

Although specific details may be fuzzy, the general message or recounting of events can be true or relatively accurate.

Embellishments are bound to happen, immediately during an event or in days to come, but ideas not original to the event can be differentiated when a written account is found.

This is the case with the account of the Gospel and letters to the churches.

Those accounts, although containing very extraordinary events (or claims of events), were indeed written by first-hand eye-witnesses.

They can be viewed as journals, personal views, since they carry that human element in them.

They can also be viewed as historically accurate and a glimpse of daily life according to their relative terms and societal details.

They have yet been defeated regarding historical methodology and accuracy.

To be continued in Part Two.