Actors know about Sense Memory,
They use it to evoke a feeling they need right now,
That isn't immediately available
Within the situation they're currently acting out.
With varying degrees of accuracy,
We can all remember how something once felt.
That's handy;
It helps us learn and re-member from past experience.
But it is a faculty that is often abused....
When we're looking for a feeling that will help us deal with the present,
Our mind will often tootle off into the past
And drag back a past incident with an emotional charge
That is vaguely similar to what we're looking for now.
This happens (usually) automatically, and very fast.
We rarely examine the past incident to check if it's at all relevant;
We just grab the emotion and start swinging it around.
It never occurs to us --
That the past incident (even if recalled) has no relevance whatsoever to the present
Other than a tenuous emotional connection.
When we're "upset",
We're kneejerking
On the basis of an unconnected and dubiously accurate memory
Of an emotional reaction to a past experience
That we may not even recollect.
(Some of these "reference" incidents become so deeply buried,
They have to be dug out by a therapist.)
We're playing from a scratchy collection of unlabelled old records.
The nostalgia may be a bit of fun,
But it sure as hell ain't conducive to insight or growth.
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