I do different things as a healthcare chaplain. For example, every Wednesday I read to a group of geriatric patients. These men and women are at least 65 years old and are receiving care for psychiatric conditions. Most of them have significant memory issues and the rest are confused as to where and when they are. Most weeks, at least a few are able to attend as I read to them for 30 minutes or so.
I always say that while I hope they will find what i read to be interesting, what really matters are the moments when they recognize themselves in the story. We always make time for them to share what comes to their minds. I believe that this contributes to their mental and spiritual health.
Like these patients, most of us have difficulty pulling the data of our lives from our memory banks. It is like when we were in school taking tests. I preferred “multiple choice” over “fill in the blank.” This is because recognition is easier and more fun than straight recall.
During a quiet Saturday morning when everyone was somewhere else, I wistfully pulled one of my wife’s scrapbooks off the shelf. In moments, I was taken back back in time twenty years to when I was transitioning from parish to hospital and my children were finishing public school and going on to college. I recognized places, events, and people I wouldn’t have been able to name if you had asked me for a list of my children’s prom dates. Not only that, the images that my wife had cropped and pasted prompted me to experience afresh my feelings from those times. I recognized myself and how much had changed since. it flavored the rest of the day for me.
This is the genius of good writing, fiction or non-fiction. A reader may never encounter alien lifeforms like the hero she is reading about, but she knows something about facing the unknown. Readers can tell pretty quickly if the scenes work or not and how many stars they will give the book when they are finished.
Recollection is just that: re-collection. The older we get the more we love those who help us do it. We are the sum of our memories. And when our last line is written, whether with a flair or a trembling hand, many of us are convinced that in the first part of forever another Author will help us re-collect all that strength of mind could not hold and will help us fill in all the blanks that has made us who we are cover to cover.