down to earth

I spoke to someone today that I knew once and they knew me.

I spoke to someone who doesn’t remember me, but we still shared laughs and stories and so on. like we had just met. I literally shook their hand again half jokingly and said nice to meet you. they asked where I was from what my nationality was how long I lived here and so on. we talked as though we never met. we spoke of their family and how I knew them too, and they asked how I knew them too. this person didn’t remember our friendship our talks our laughs from times when they still had their memory. I did it automatically, this brief pretension of being a new person to them, this is a small and subtle betrayal perhaps to my own memory but a helping hand to this person, omitting the part for them where they have to say: sorry, from where do I know you… quickly, instinctively, I didn’t hesitate to play a role to save them the time of searching their mind restlessly. I know the feeling of making someone wait or embarrassing others and I didn’t want this person to suffer that additionally. they said “ I have an idea a picture of who you are and that I remember something but not much…sorry” at this, I don’t feel any offense or sadness. I somehow feel lighter and happier – that having just remet someone I knew for over ten years we can have so many smiles and laughs, without even having the slightest degree of context of our previous knowledge of one another, without even reaching the same value of that previous context – we can still have maybe an even greater value in sharing something that goes beyond memory.

~written early morn mar 13 regarding mar 12~

Update March 18

I actually thought it was beautiful that under the circumstances a person can still see so much beauty and that actually by not having some of the memory you get to kind of live life all over again with new eyes I thought it was so beautiful

Was texting my friend over this and realized maybe my initial voice for this seemed sad or with disappointment.. didn’t mean for that at all.. if anything I am certainly nostalgic but inspired nonetheless