Mostly what you lose with time, in memory, is the specificity of things, their exact sequence. It all runs together, becomes a watery soup. Portmanteau days, imploded years. Like a bad actor, memory always goes for effect, abjuring motivation, consistency, good sense.
Interpretation
Memory tends to blend together over time, losing specific details and clarity.
In this quote, James Sallis reflects on the nature of memory and how time affects our recollection of events. He suggests that as time passes, our memories become less distinct and more fused into a vague amalgamation, akin to a 'watery soup'. This blend erases the clarity and sequence of past experiences, illustrating the unreliable nature of memory as it prioritizes emotional impact over factual accuracy.
In practice
In a speech about the effects of aging on cognition.
He existed a step or two to one side of the common world, largely out of sight, a shadow, all but invisible. Whatever he owned, either he could hoist it on his back and lug it along or he could walk away from it. Anonymity was the thing he loved most about the city, being a part of it and apart from it at the same time.
We all become well-disguised mirror image of anything that we fight too long or too directly. That which we oppose determines the energy and frames the questions after a while. Most frontal attacks on evil just produce another kind of evil in yourself, along with a very inflated self-image to boot.
I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.
Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.
The last clear definite function of man — muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need — this is man.
The Sunni militants that make up ISIS are not the underlying problem in Syria and Iraq, but rather they are a symptom of other deeper problems.
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