5th November 2026
I can barely remember yesterday, yet in an interview, Sir Paul McCartney mentioned he has clear memories of being a baby. This comment surprisingly perturbed me; swirling around in my head.
Let me explain in my usual meandering way.
Memory making in less flowery terms describes the processes employed by our minds to store and preserve information and experiences for later retrieval. Activities undertaken, decisions determined, laughter guffawed, words perused – I could go on. Essentially every aspect of our lives is to some extent catalogued inside our heads. It is truly miraculous when you step back and consider this process and what it means to be us. Living historical artefacts wrapped snuggly in a blanket of context.
Nature has bestowed this ability upon us out of necessity. It is indispensable to our survival; aiding in avoiding that which has damaged us previously and enabling us to repeat that which we need to live – efficiently and at speed.
But the purpose of memory beyond survival is intriguing. Why do we retain certain experiences in such technicolour detail and why do we store what could be termed trifles? In essence I think it is because we are our memories. Someone unknown described memory as ‘The scribe of the soul’. Our memories dictate how we view ourselves and that around us; how we operate and what we believe. They inform decision making and planning by encouraging the brain to scour the past for useful reference points. Foster creativity by supporting supposedly random connections between things we know. They help maintain and deepen relationships as we build on awareness of each other. And by giving us a sense of who we are and can be, bolster our emotional resiliency and our engagement with those in our circles.
Memories are powerful tools of the present and the future.
More prosaically, although our understanding is still in infancy, we now know the brain operates a distributed system when it comes to memory management improving associative processing and efficiency of access. The elements forming a memory – audio, visual imagery, emotions, facts – are stashed in various specialised regions of the cerebral cortex including assorted lobes and the amygdala. The hippocampus (from the Latin ‘horse sea monster’) is the warehouse retaining a map of where these constituents reside. Think of it as akin to an all powerful search engine. When we try to recall a memory, the hippocampus activates Neurons across the brain, retrieving the various sensory and factual elements to reconstruct the memory. Rebuilding from scratch rather than simply playing back a recording.
Although we don’t know the full capacity of our memory, there is a degree of selectivity in what we preserve and for how long. Some information is kept for seconds and other memories endure for a lifetime. Retaining everything would, it is thought, overwhelm our ability to function. Hence forgetting is memory’s powerful sidekick.
We can also categorise memory in different ways. For example explicit memory is a product of conscious recollection of facts and experiences and implicit memory underpins the rote actions we carry out without conscious thought such as riding a bike. This discrimination occurs through repeated utilisation of a memory. Strengthening the neural pathways in the cortex between the various constituents of the memory forming a more permanent trace. And so evocation occurs via the cortex bypassing the hippocampus deriving faster, more resilient recollection particularly for implicit memories.
But bear me with me. Although I have barely touched on the marvel that is memory, this next step in my meander is even more daunting. As I stated previously, our memories are reconstructions, not recordings. This is a critical dimension of the process. But for all the benefits it is an angle which exposes weaknesses, rendering our memories highly malleable and corruptible. Worse, we may never realise a memory has been altered. And this is no small problem, impacting particularly our explicit memories. It means we and those around us are composed of stories and all that implies.
There are multiple reasons why distortions can occur. Memory making is vulnerable to selective perception (noting certain aspects differently to actuality). Our emotional state and distractions can influence what we register and cause us to ignore peripheral details. On retrieval we may re-interpret sensory information or the whole memory based on new associations or understanding. Even the act of recall can influence the memory itself. Suggestive questions can be leading, conferring with another can introduce nuances. We can unconsciously transfer data from one memory to another due to familiarity and our imagination can blur the boundary of reality. A malcontent can even inject false memories if they so choose to. At an even more fundamental level, we each interpret the same event uniquely because we absorb and untangle information in a singular fashion.
It really is disturbing if you think too deeply about it.
Life should incorporate dazzling memories. I truly feel and believe that. Many of us hope to look back and via this one lens, consider the worth of our life. But what of these deceptions quietly percolating? Slithering around, callously ripping through, discarding and re-forming experiences leaving us none the wiser as to what is true about ourselves?
As i’ve mulled this over i’ve decided it doesn’t matter all that much. It is a part of being human. Sure the exactness should not be trusted; sure flaws will abound and chronology and aspects could be muddled. But the essence and feelings accumulated across our lifetime I have to believe are broadly true. So I and who I believe I am is broadly true. And that’s good enough for me.
On that basis, maybe Sir Paul McCartney doesn’t truly remember being a baby. But I’m sure his memories are broadly true and so he too is who he thinks he is and i’m sure that’s good enough for him too….
