Erasing Memories

Ever since I first saw the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I've wondered if I had the opportunity, would I chose to erase some memories?

To be honest, I go back and forth.

At times, I think that I would erase the most painful ones. Why relive them in my mind if I do not have to? I do tend to dwell so if I can forget terrible, humiliating, or painful things that have happened to me, wouldn't I be better off? Only having positive and happy memories with which to focus sounds like a great thing to me.

Other times, I think that experiences and memories make you the person that you are. Remembering unpleasant times, helps you to better appreciate happy times. Also, you grow as a person with each experience - good or bad - so in effect you are the sum of your memories. If you cut out a whole bunch of them, does that make you less of a person?

I also wonder if I would end up like Kirsten Dunst's character in the movie. Her character erases bad memories and then ends up making the same choices that lead her down the unpleasant path. Would that happen to me? If I did not have the bad memories to learn from, would I be doomed to repeat the same mistakes?

In the end, I do not know what I would do. I have a ridiculously good memory, which I often say is both a blessing and a curse. For although I do remember good things, I also remember in excruciating detail all of the bad and painful things in my life. By this fact alone, I know I would be extremely tempted to erase those bad memories. The very thought of never having to relive them would be too tempting. But, I am also an overly cautious person so I would problem fear losing the good memories with the bad. In the end, I'm not sure what would win out - temptation or caution.

It's a tough question and one that I think about a lot. I guess I'm lucky that this technology does not actually exist. It can remain a hypothetical debate in my head.