Many of us would have
read “Three Days to See” by Helen Keller, but what if, you only had 3 days
worth of memories?
Three days to see, or
three days of life, or three days worth of memories – wait, I am no noble man
here to discuss philosophical questions such as these.
Once someone said: “If
you can live life like there’s no tomorrow, and just do what you want to do,
then your life will never be the same again.” How true it is, but I doubt its
practicality. We all want to do what we want to do, but most of the time we
cannot. There are too many things that we need to take into consideration, you
know; freedom comes with limitations. We can’t, say, quit our jobs or studies
and travel to a far far place, remain there and enjoy life. At the same time,
one man influences another. We need to take care of our parents, our spouse,
our friends and many other parties in our lives. Even if we are able to do put
all these things down, and aim for our dreams, we still need to take care of
our basic needs. Man needs to first produce then consume. If I don’t work, how
am I going to fill my stomach? That is why, desire and reality are always far
apart. For those who can bring them close together, success belongs to them.
What if, there exists
a special kind of disease, which allows your brain to retain only 3 days worth
of memory. After every three days, you will forget everything – you forget who
you are and those who are around you. You do not remember a single thing. All
your academic or technical skills are wiped clean. You are left with nothing
except for the ability to communicate and the rationale to judge logically.
Will you still be able to live?
I can’t imagine how
meaningless that life would be. If you were a successful man, all your glorious
and wonderful moments are to be erased, after just three days. You cannot
retain a single thing. Even if someone is to record it down, it would be
futile, because eventually you will not remember even who you are. The “you” 3
days before is NOT THE SAME as the “you” 3 days after. Meaningless is that
life, but there is one thing which is comforting. Say if you have a miserable
life, condemned and abandoned, after 3 days, you will forget everything. All
your transgressions and your iniquities will be gone, and you can start a brand
new life.
Of course, your main
challenge is still, survival. You do not have any knowledge. All that you learned
in high school and college – you lose them. You have no qualifications, no
papers, nothing. How do you earn a living? And what if, you are allowed choose
to let your brain remember one thing; just one single thing, what would it be?
How do you, technically, survive?
If I were to be placed
in such a situation, I would let my brain remember that “I have such a
disease”. I may have lost my memories, but I haven’t lost my rationale.
Literally, I am still able to think. My rationale will still be able to guide
me to find food and the basic needs. Having myself reminded of this disease
ensures a peace of mind. At least, I won’t do anything stupid, or at least, I
would know how to resolve my priorities – first to survive then do something
else. Once this part is done, I am safe, and need not worry about other things.
The strategy stated
above is crucial, even in real life. You see, “allowing my brain to remember
that I have such a disease” is just the same as “to know and identify yourself”
(in real life). Many a times, we are blinded by a lot of things. Our heart is
troubled by the daily problems that we face. The worst part is, we let
circumstances redefine ourselves. For example, you wish to be successful, or to
get rich, but you end up in a college. Why? That’s because everyone is
attending college, and you “FEEL” that if you don’t do the same, you will be
left out. You think you are not able to compete with the others. You think that no
companies are going to hire you. Again, our values are compromised. We lose our
directions, and eventually our identities. We forget who we are. See, when you
forget who you are, you are identical to the person without memories! Why? It’s
because when you are lost, you do not know your priorities. You cannot apply
what you have learnt. You follow what the other says. You don’t feel
comfortable when things are out of norm. You cannot control not the problems
but yourself. When the trouble is small, you magnify it and start to worry
about it – all because, you do not know your priorities and this is first
because you are lost.
The bible says
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own”. How wise these words are! (Mark 6:34)
If I were to have only
3 days worth of memory, I would spend the first two days thinking, and the last
day executing what I have thought.
For every 3 days, I am
left with nothing. All I have is my brain telling me I have this weird disease.
But it reminds me that my “LIFE” is short, technically only 3 days. I know that
I only have 3 days worth of memory. I have to survive these 3 days, by hook or
by crook. I need a plan. I need to think. A plan to survive, think to live. I
will not spend a single effort to do any other things within these two days.
All I will have to think is just to plan carefully, and this plan will have to
allow me to live for 3 days. The plan cannot fail, because I can’t afford to. I
only have 3 days, and there is no reverse if I were to fail. I can think of how
to make a small impact on others. I can think of how to help others. All these
things will be part of my 3 day plan.
As for the last day, I
will stop thinking. I let my brain rest. For now, I will concentrate on
executing the plan. This is my last day of my 3 day life. Tomorrow I will have
a new one. I will not regret in what I do. Regret is not what I should do now
but the first two days. No other things should divert my concentration. I need
to find food, food that is enough for 3 days. This is because after tomorrow, I
will lose my memories again, and for the next two days spent in planning and
thinking, I have to consume what I have previously found. I am not sure how I
plan to help others, but I guess I am still be able to make an impact to the
people around me, even if it is less significant than it should be. I am free
to help others – because there is no conflict of interest. I will not remember
anything else, after I wake up tomorrow. As long as I am able to survive,
nothing is important to me.
If I were to follow
what I have written above, then I would have spent 2/3 of my time enriching
myself, while the other 1/3 enriching others. Now life is THAT short, but
I bet it’s well spent.
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