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The Side Effects of Endorphins

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The Expanding Past

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K Mark Schofer

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If you could relive one day from your past, which day would it be and why?

As our memories go farther and farther into the past, our stories about them grow until the memories far exceed the actual experience.

Lou Reed wrote this song about a perfect day he spent with his then fiancé. In some ways I find it a simple and perfect song.

Perfect Day.

Just a perfect day
drink sangria in a park
and then later
when it gets dark we go home
Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
and then later a movie, too
and then home

Oh it’s such a perfect day
I’m glad I spend it with you
oh such a perfect day you just keep me hangin on
you just keep me hangin on

We can relive these perfect days in our head all the time. I have never been one who can not find a creative verve to most things. Or maybe my imagination isn’t having puppies today. I find the notion of reliving a perfect day a bit absurd.

Reliving a day has high expectations that are not going to met. And even if it is a perfect day there is going to be some withdrawal into present reality the following day.

For example, I had what was considered a perfect day last Saturday. Still it was filled with mini disasters, moments of uncertainty and plenty of hard work. And given the perfect day, can you change the course of action to make it more perfect. Naturally I am assuming one would want to relive a near perfect day. I apologize for that.

Here I am today sitting in the Sawtooth mountains spending a few days with friends from when I lived in DC. As far as I am concerned today is a perfect day. It’s a little hot for my liking. But tomorrow, given the permissions of this essay, I would like to relive today. But would the owner of the Air BNB charge us for another day?

I am discussing this prompt with my friends and started the stories flowing.

I given the poetic license, the general consensus is to relive the day we are born.

One response to “The Expanding Past”

  1. vermavkv Avatar
    vermavkv

    What a wonderfully thoughtful and wonderfully unconventional reflection on the idea of a “perfect day.” 😊

    I love how you begin with the observation that memories often become larger than the experiences themselves. That is such a fascinating truth about human memory—we don’t simply remember moments; we gradually rewrite them through emotion, imagination, and nostalgia.

I would love to hear you opinion as well

Hello,

I’m Mark

His friends observe Mark seems wired a little differently. Perhaps it’s more likely that noticing little things often missed by others is a relic of a quieter, simpler time. He has a way with words, which he refuses to let be hindered by sub-par typing skills. People have great stories to tell if you sit and listen.

A belief dear to Mark is that there is certain beauty in the world. You simply have to look for it.

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