Memory & Mrs Thatcher

I visualise my brain as Gruyere cheese with black holes into which current & past memories disappear. In common with friends of my age, I experience the weird sensation of what I was about to do slipping out of my consciousness, so I have to re-trace my steps to try & jog the memory back into awareness. If I don't write tasks down there is every chance I will forget them. So I have a complex system of lists, a diary & and wall calendar. Disconcertingly there is every possibility that I can have a conversation and completely forget it - as though it never happened.

Similarly I have a very poor recollection of much of my childhood & adolescence. I'm not sure why this is, because many of my friends seem to remember much more & in the minutest detail. I think I was probably quite unhappy at home & at school & my brain is protecting me. We are capable of  blocking a lot out to avoid painful memories. I don't dwell on it though. The here & now is much more important & I am shaped by my past & stronger for it.

The death of Mrs Thatcher has brought her period of history back into the forefront of people's consciousness. Maybe that's a good thing because it puts today's economic stringency into context. I do remember the bloody miners strike & the images of the clashes between them & the police. I remember the wives supporting their men and the strident & extreme Arthur Scargill. I remember the 3 day week which seems far worse to me than current austerities. I remember the lights going out & the decline in manufacturing industries. They were dire times & politics & people were polarised.

Our memories are important whoever we are & wherever we live. History is written in memory. Memory of events shows patterns of cause & effect. However I do think that we shouldn't dwell in the past. We should learn & take from the past but live in the now & move forward.

I will be pleased when today's funeral of Mrs Thatcher is over. She has stirred painful memories & old divisions. When today is over I hope she will RIP & we can move on. I hope there will be no mawkish sanctifying of her memory. She doesn't warrant it.