Thoughts

I have been thinking lately about existence and memories and how bizarre it all is.

My brain is struggling to fathom death - human existence one moment and then the absence of a spiritual soul due to the failure of the physical body. The body is the container but in the end it is so insignificant - without the soul in it the person is gone. It is strange to me that the memories we have of people are so connected with their "container" - we picture ourselves with them at certain places, we are comforted by the sound of their voice, we recognize the smell of their shampoo when we hug them, we know the color of their eyes. Yet, the spirit and the soul, their inner being of who they really are... their thoughts and fears and jokes and the mind that makes the choices that make them who they are is what actually makes them our friends. That spirit has nothing to do with their facial features or their height or their mannerisms, and yet because we are visual beings those physical traits are how we are able to fathom and recognize the ephemeral qualities of their spirit.

It is also weird to me how both the physical and spiritual side of a person need to exist together for us to really feel like they are present with us. We can miss someone even if we are able to talk to them on the phone - their thoughts and hopes and fears are available to us and yet we miss them anyway - we miss being in physical contact in a way where we can really feel their presence. At the same time, when someone dies their body is still there - their nose turns up the same way and their hair is the same color, and yet their spirit is absent, and we miss them.

Who someone is to us is all based on how our senses "collect" and "archive" their characteristics. We recognize them based on how our brain has processed previous experiences with them. I've always wondered with colors if we all see the same thing when we think "green"... does your green look like my green? We both recognize the grass is green but in our brains do our eyes process the color the same? I think that about people too. I recognize the sound of your voice, so does Analise, and Jim, and Phil, and Courtney. But are we hearing the same voice or have our brains "collected" it differently? I don't know the answer I am just curious.