Names evoke emotions. Names serve as a hotline to the collective experiences that we have been through together and triggers our mental impression to resurface in our mindscape. Names are hyperlinks to the past in the world wide web of our intertwined lives. And while all it takes to clear the cache and delete past history in our internet browsers is to click a button, the same could not be said of our past narratives. 

Why do we want to forget something? Doesn’t every incident of old function as a cumulative building block of our identity? Then again, not everything can be construed into constructive experiences. Even with alchemy and the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, not all things can be turned into gold - lead is still required to serve as the base. And not all experiences are made of lead.

Well, maybe it is part of nature’s plan for all things to be regulated by a cycle of decay and rejuvenation - so even the sweetest wine may turn into spoiled vinegar one day; even the most fragrant of roses will wilt in desolate conditions; and even the pretty can sour in the bitter passages of time. 

And all that is familiar is gradually clouded in impenetrable mists and when we stumble out of the intimidating fog, we look to see that all around us has changed perceptibly - the road that was is no longer, countenances of companions have turned amorphous, and the stars above no longer form recognisable constellations.

I guess for all my rhetoric on evolution and enrichment, change still feels like an anathema. Or perhaps, a more nuanced perspective might be that the change I prefer is convergent change. But all around, divergent change is happening unto us. What happened to all those pinky promises and platinum pledges? Do emptied memories beget empty promises?

What a convoluted, convoluted post. 

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