Backing Into the Future: The Memories That Make a Life

In a recent episode of the Bema Podcast, host Marty Solomon references Brad Gray, discussing one of the distinguishing factors of the Judeo-Christian narrative. I mentioned in a previous post on this site that memory is a concept indebted to the Judeo-Christian Tradition, at least in the way it utilizes it as redemptive act and concept. Solomon notes how the Judeo-Christian tradition referred to the future as “the behind days”. Unlike pagan cultures (pagan being defined appropriately rather than polemic) which were obsessed with future and a forward facing posture, the Judeo-Christian Tradition taught and practiced a backwards facing posture. The future is unknown, the practice of faithful living is rooted in memory, or remembering. Therefore they “backed into the future”, precisely because they were always facing backwards.

I loved this concept. It’s written into the whole of the scriptures. It feels right to the posture of my own life living in a western society obsessed with the myth of progress.

It gained some weight reading through Lous Daniel’s How To Write Your Life Story.

The entire premise of this how to manual (more of a course than a book, as Daniel’s describes) is built on the notion that the author/professor firmly believes everyone should engage in this process, and second that it is built on the practice of building a memory bank. Memory is at the core of this process. More striking is the fact that Daniel’s has seen this process bear fruit in both young and old. It’s not something we do necessarily after we arrive in the future, it’s something we do as a valuable part of living our pasts into the future.

I’ve started this process. Thus far its been illuminating and fascinating- and I’m only at the part where I’m logging memory. The more I log, the more memory starts to take central focus in how I am seeing the present. In fact, this is one of the tips of formulating this into a story, is always connecting the past to the present. This allows us to see how we are formed by this practice of remembering, and likewise how it can be a part of our daily living in the now.