Flypaper

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“Books are like flypaper, memories cling to the printed pages better than anything else.”  
-Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

Photo Credit: Patrick Tomasso from Unsplash

This is a quote from one of my favorite books, I disappeared into it frequently as refuge from my own head. However, lately I have been thinking how the same really applies to the brain. It is also flypaper and both the best and worst memories cling there. The best in the form of scent bound memories, fuzzy thoughts, and sunlight filled dreams. The worst, however, is much more insidious. I can't count the number of times a song, innocent phrase, or behavior has left me trapped inside an old memory.

The worst for me is whistling, it's so innocuous and travels easily through spaces. But instead of facing the anxiety of explaining my maze of memories every time I request that someone stop, I often find myself gritting my teeth and hiding in bathrooms to shake and hold myself together as I get trapped in my own memory fueled anxiety. It can take a completely normal and productive day and throw it so far off track that it completely forgot it was a train. What part of this analogy is the train? I don't know.

Anyway, brains are complicated and sometimes a little cruel with the memories.

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