Monday, May 24, 2021

Meta meme

I had asthma as a child so I avoided running.  As an adult, I have been known to run a 5K every now and then, but my major goal has always been to simply finish.  A recent purchase of a treadmill has inspired me to try hit a 5K in 30 mins or less.  Today I hit that goal (I hear you laughing, YL - remember I told you to reach out to me when you are 50 or 51 and then we'll talk!).

Every time I hit the treadmill (at first because it was winter-time in New England and now because the pollen count is out of control), I have the same images pop into my head.  Every single time.

One is this scene from Gattaca:  

The other is the opening montage from the Six Million Dollar Man:

It occurs to me that almost everything I do has a meta-memory associated with it (even a simple stretch begets recollections of associated memories).  Either an old memory of my own or something from a movie or a book or something... Reminds me of the flashbacks to older black and white movies embedded within Mon Oncle d'Amerique which I always think of as informing the hero what it means to be manly.  When I think on this movie's influence on me, I'm also bringing up the influences on that movie, right?


Maybe these cultural touchstones speak to me because they are manifestations of some kind of universal psyche.

                                                -or- 

Maybe I am simply a collection of memes accumulated over my lifetime

                                                  ?

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