What Is The Purpose Of A Memory?

Memories must serve some form of purpose, right? Other than to have the caveman's understanding of who died from eating what mushroom. They clearly have a lot more of a role than just that in our lives. However, if I go back and switch on the screen playing all my memories, not one would help me survive. Yet I will never want to erase them. After all, memories maketh mankind. If your memories were erased for even a year from your life, you would cease to exist. You are the person who has gained experience and built their attitude and ego around their situations. If I even take a percentage of that away, the cards will reshuffle into a new combination.

So one may argue that memories are needed to survive, at least in a social sense. Noticing patterns, red flags, green flags, fire, appreciation, hate, and sarcasm. The fact is that if memory is what makes a personality into a person, then what about those who cannot remember? Do they keep resetting? An 80-year-old could lose his memory all the way back to his 50s and all the growth he has suddenly feels unearned. 

So go out there and make memories. Don't focus on just making good ones though. For all you know, there could come one day when you're fortunate enough to be able to forget unwillingly. Maybe, just maybe, you only remember the good times, and all the bad memories get erased. Amazing how love and hate work in a similar fashion. We either only see the good or the bad. Sometimes we see all of it and still turn a blind eye. Because it is better to have that one person that you only see as an angel when the rest of the world feels like hell. I believe that might actually be better than going to heaven considering that if a race had a finish line, would you actually enjoy or wait for the trophy on the other side? Which do you think is more fun?