" the desire to remember and the desire
to forget are indissolubly mixed "
i have been reading more in my life than ever before. mostly non-fiction, but that is usually all i ever read.
sometimes i wish i had the i-phone just to use the notepad app (and maybe the app that tells you where public bathrooms are). not that i couldn't be old-school and have a little pocket book and pen with me at all times, i often do, but in this day and age we most certainly have a handy (german name for cell-phone) with us at all times. it would make for the remembering of little texts and thoughtful words easily available for later reflection since they would be permanently noted. but then i think, if i always had a pen and notepad with me i would clumsily wash my faber-castell black pen too often. yes, it has already happened here which didn't bode well for the small selection of clothes my closet contains.
well, about this reading. it is mostly about the history of the city of berlin, or urbanism on a whole, bits and pieces of different critics on the development happening here, german children's books, these sorts of things. since, i believe, there is something so personal to receive from cities, especially one such as berlin, you can relate some hidden pieces of the text about cities to other aspects outside of which they are meant. this is the case at hand. it just takes a bit of sun-staring and chem-trail chasing. or squinting to find the beauty in this city, which to some is not very apparent. but that definitely depends on what beautiful is to you. think about that. i dare you.
as the quote mentions, remembering and forgetting are permanently bonded together, our desire to that is. do you ever think about something so much SO that you will never forget it? or why is it that we will never forgot an instance in our life that may have been just a fleeting moment? i don't think we get the choice to forget. but would like to believe we get the choice to remember. however, i'm not certain it works that way. i would be lying if i said that when in the past someone forgot something we shared or experienced together that i feel like i would not ever forget has saddened me. though i'm positive i have be in the reverse role. it's all so personal: it's how we engage with our surroundings, the person in front of us, the landscape we stand in, the repetitive ways we turn our bodies, the context of our conversations. the amazing thing about these thoughts to me, is that i believe, as an aspiring urban designer, our profession could create a place or stage if you will, to grant people the ability to remember with a place/city/park/street/younameit as the setting.
now to create.
