a writing exercise on making a memory.

for those of you who know me and for some of you who may not you should know that every now and again i dream of becoming a writer. it´s hard to believe given the content of this blog but i assure you the words jumbled up in my mind can indeed manifest themselves into a story. the last few days i have been working on a short story and it is the only time on this trip i have wished for a computer. for two reasons really: the first being i can´t write as quickly as i can type and the second being that when i write fast i can´t read what i write. what a conundrum. i would share the story with you but we´ll have to see how it turns out. rest assured that it will be my greatest work of art. or at least it will pass for something at least readable. but, for today, i will write for you post the factual description of our day a journal entry of mine...just to keep you all excited and reading this fine blog.

we find ourselves today in argentina again. this means we have crossed the andes again (thankfully following a river valley and hence the day of uphill followed by the day of downhill) and the terrain is once again the pampas. we have shirked off our forested mountain sides and have traded them in for shades of brown. but being back in argentina means we are reintroduced to perpetual matte drinkers and very inexpensive food. our first stop has been the ice cream shop. from here we will catch a bus to el calafate. we bought our tickets and almost walked away with a husband for cari! and so the final leg of our journey begins.

and now, a journal entry from today. we were crossing lago buenos aires on a ferry and as my mind was trying to fathom everything i had seen and experienced these last few months i came to a point of wondering what is required to make a memory. i am reminded of my friend ashley middleton at this point because well, she knows.
note: i have decided not to edit this because well, my thoughts don´t always come out so perfect and that´s part of the authenticity in sharing this entry.

March 7 (or is it the 8) 2008.

*every observation is only valid for the present moment
*these places that i have seen were once places i only dared visit in pictures!!!!!!!
*i haven´t written a sort of essay for a while and given that i have a few minutes here i think i´ll write one. i am most intrigued by what it takes to make a memory. what will it take for me to remember these moments and how can i be sure that before they are filed away in my mind in such a way that they can be easily called upon. and so here i begin this telling though i am aware even as i write here that i have forgotten what the proper essay format is. somewhere in here must be an introduction and i must conclude somehow. we´ll see.

It is required, for this fine art, that a memory is made with all five senses open wide and quite willling to appear vulnerable to the world. there is the sense of sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. i remember the first time in kindergarten we talked about these senses. i forget about taste the most.

the eyes must fulfill their obligation by absorbing the color, the outline and as manny small nuances as possible. Yet, they cannot be the chief sense as we have so often come to rely upon them. it wouldn´t be fair after all. the eyes are simply the lens for the mind to take a photo yet that photo is not at all three dimensional without the other components. it remains flat and lost withoutht the remaining details.

the eyes absolutely need help from the hands. the hands and feet and chin and legs for that matter are vehicles for the sense of touch. they have an important job to carefully feel the texture of an object. even when looking at a mountain from a distacne are not the hands and the feet in a place as well and is not that place a part of the experience? the sense of touch is underglorified and for that purpose i find i must give way for some exhaltation.

the nose. the nose is always working though never noted except in extreme conditions of beauty or disgust. it is impossible to always remember to take a deep breath through the nose but it is paramount for making a memory. (note to future self: remember to take a deep breath even now as you are probably reading this in an attic somewhere and even now is a fine time to allow the nose to work in this capacity. though i am sorry if something has happened to your nose and this has brought up a bad memory). this is why it is also critical to always carry a hankerchief. it was something my grandmother taught me though i am not even sure if she was aware of the wisdom she was imparting on me. furthermore, a deep breath through the nose allows the body to relax and opens the other senses further allowing your surrounding to become a part of you. you are the water splashing on the rocks and the wind against your face. it is like immersing a drinking glass in water in that once it is fully under water it is a part of the water and only its outline remains. ...now the nose is only a vehicle for smell. there is always something to smell and it is our lack of imagination that says there is nothing. perhaps new words can be created for these various details.

the sense of taste is something quite interesting. you may not, at first, be able to taste a mountain but it is possible. if you take a moment and breathe through your mouth and let the air fly across your taste buds, there has to be something there. right? well then how did the expression come about that air tastes sweet? well this one is somewhat of a challenge for me and therefore i cannot necessarily write more about it until i have experimented with it more. i will say that one should be careful with this experimentation on a bicycle because bugs are quite large sometimes and what a pity it would be to choke on a dragonfly mid experiment.

and lastly, the sense of sound. how quickly this sense is omitted from our memory. i have made a special effort to remember sound. the the back of this journal is a list of sounds and drawings of their various pitches so i remember them. perhaps it is because our world moves so quickly and so much is ingested that we forget to really listen. listen to the sound of someones voice, a moth fluttering by at night etc. sound is always occurring we just have to be especially present to record it on our memories.

and when i first began this writing i was convinced that the heart had to be open prior to making a memory and now i am convinced that in the process of making a memory something remarkable happens to the sensitivity of the heart and how this really becomes the intangible sixth sense.

in this moment i will practice enscribing this moment into my memory...

and so ends that journal entry. i realize it´s quite elementary but how often have i stood in a place of beauty and so quickly tried to absorb it only to forget it in the very next moment. my camera and my journal can only do so much...