On Memories and Being Human

John H Reif

I have always known that

memories are the essence of being human,

that all of our existence finds its substance

in the light of a momentary thought long forgotten.

I have always known that

the natural universe was self-assembled rather than created,

just as thoughts that we seem to have consciously created

are instead self-assembled

from fragments of our own memories,

current perceptions, and

future expectations.

I have always known that

the flow of time that we perceive to be moving

in slow motion in periods of tedium and boredom and

all so fast in times of panic or emergency,

is instead an artifice of our mind,

that stitches together asynchronous and disjointed perceptions

into sequential order -

our mind is a time zipper that jackets our memories from an unfathomable chaos.