This week we celebrated Passover. Every family has their traditions. At the end of the Seder there is a rhyme called ‘Only one Kid’. It’s a children’s rhyme that begins when the father brings home a goat, and then sees various animals, objects and characters added on in succession. The cat came and ate the goat, and the dog came and bit the cat… you get the idea. In any case, we substitute sounds for the animals and characters as we go around the table chanting this tale. This tradition began many years ago, when my Mom was still with us, and she was quite old at the time. What took us all by surprise and delight, was that she impersonated the goat, with a joyful ‘baaaaaaa’! And she chimed in at just the right times throughout the rhyme.

The next year, we were equipped with a video and a camera in anticipation of capturing the moment, but it didn’t happen quite the same. Now, each year, we all picture that time with her as we sit around my sister’s table. It is etched in each of our imaginations, and makes us smile. We didn’t need the video or a photograph. We all shared that intimate, magical moment and we remember.

Are those memories that live only in our imagination the most powerful of all? As it turns out, according to a study by Fairfield University Psychologist, Linda Henkel, published in Psychological Science, our obsession with documenting every moment through a lens doesn’t necessarily help us remember them. Her study reveals that we actually remember things with more clarity and detail when we have experienced them first hand, rather than capturing them with a camera.

It makes me think about how we remember. There are some things I know about my childhood, but I can’t say for certain that I remember them as they actually happened, or if I know them through the photograph or the telling. Some memories are hearsay and some are absorbed. And, some are memories that we experience collectively, that remain in our psyche and our hearts that are intensely powerful. Certainly, that’s how I felt at our Seder on Tuesday night. We sat together, all the children and grandchildren that were with Mom that night, and we shared the story with her great grandchildren as well, as we continued the tradition.

Memories flourish in our experience, storytelling and personal remembrance. Memories, may be beautiful and yet…

Thought you might enjoy this live video of Barbara Streisand, 1975, The Way we Were

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-KPGh3wysw