The Persistence of Memory

“ I always remember my childhood house with happy memories. There was a beautiful garden, and outside my bedroom window was a jasmine vine which would open in the evenings, giving off a divine scent.” Said Carolina Herrera. Jasmine vines? Such a small thing for someone from the heart of the city of jasmine, Damascus. My grandma used to gaze at her beloved jasmine in her garden, she said that the moon liked Damascus so much that it put its head on its shoulder and those white fallen hairs became jasmine. For that maybe a Syrian poet said once “ Damascus summarizes the history of jasmine”

I am sailing in this endless sea of memories, taking me to childhood, the jasmine fields, and Damascus, not a luxurious cruise, but an exhausting trip especially when the route back to where you belong is not closed by snow, but by blood and war.

Eduardo Galiano said, “For sailors who love the wind, memory is a good port of departure.” Since I was a child, my dream was always to become a sailor. Unfortunately, I did not fulfill that dream, but I certainly have had the destiny of a sailor.

When the hands of memory do not leave me, I run to Salvador Dali’s “The persistence of memory”, thinking of how Dali incorporated parts of himself and his memories into this masterpiece. Every detail reflects him: the steep cliffs of Cap de Creus, the ants (representing his fear of death), the horizon made of Naples yellow mixed with blue (his favorite two colors), and of course the famous soft clocks melting everywhere in the painting. Everyone has a similar hidden landscape within them that can tell endless stories about themselves when the memories persist. To put it on paper, we only need Dali’s talent.

There may be difficulty in letting go of those memories. Murakami said “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” The memory reminds us that we are alive and this is the nice part maybe. When you think of pleasant memories, you feel like you have a sweet tooth walking through a Pâtisserie without being able to eat any. You can only remember the flavor. Sad memories leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth and it seems that days only make it worse. We all wish maybe to have a heart like the one mentioned in this saying of Gabriel Marquez “ The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”

Murakami who is always busy with the memories in his novels said “ Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through, is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past, like ancient stars that have burned out, are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. New styles, new information, new technology, new terminology … But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.”

In my opinion, memories are similar to clay tablets. It is time and oblivion that will cause the written lines on them to fade away, but if Memories persist, then they will become an invincible flood. Luckily those moments are not too many for the majority of us. The best distraction from remembering yesterday’s drought or opulence could be to focus on today and cultivate the garden of the present.

I’m cultivating beautiful white jasmine plants in my garden to create brand new memories. Though I know deep inside that they will not be the same as those from Damascus that covered my soul and are still interwoven into my DNA and accent. Since the memories persist, it’s best to stop here…

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