We apparently underestimate the correlation between air temperature changes and the memory retrieval mechanism of the human mind. The sudden change in temperature triggers your head to locate those related memories. Last night was chilly, 17C (=62F, before then it was a constant 30C) and I had a series of the most intense dreams. So intense I kept waking up from them. Your skin never lies.
I know why I love the cold. There are too many great memories associated with it. Too many to count. Too great to forget. I do honestly miss New England and Northeast Tri-State, especially NYC of course, and mainly.
Those freezing walks on Brooklyn Bridge; winds blowing in the midst of the coldest autumn when the first snowflake falls; student films in downtown Manhattan, Williamsburg Brooklyn, Coney Island, midtown, Brooklyn college, prospect park; going to work in blizzards; getting stuck and declaring a snow day; overtime pay for the sanitation workers; stocking too much salt for a quiet winter; new year countdown in Timesquare; new millennium laser show while new boro president being sworn in; 5 degrees F chrismas party; clinging together bracing gusts of wind; ski bus trips from downtown board to upstate hunter; shopping malls in nj; running late and scared shitless in the subway; the overheated train cars; bubble jackets; astor place; the villages; chelsea; westside highway; connecticut; halloween party and parade near west 4th; christmas strangers in Queens; new years eve hit or miss; radiocity; cheap classical concert seats; avery fischer hall; thanksgiving dinner; cool cousins; virtual non-existence of earthquakes; saturday morning calculus classes; the most beautiful college campus in the USA; ghetto neighborhoods; mumbling subway conductors; the periodic temporary blackouts on trains to Queens; astor place(i know, again); flatbush bklyn; 7th avenue; muddy snow; the stares; chit-chat with strangers; day trip to Vermont spa; chinese restaurant in CT; smelly greyhound buses; mystic seaport; clam chowder; boston japanese restaurant; vietnamese lunches; the film forum; the illusive skyscrapers; chinatown; little italy; subway musicians;
As far as I'm concerned, summer only exists for the sole purpose of emphasizing the importance of winter. I know years from now, I'll be thinking the same about the winters in Japan. They're not as cold, but almost as intense. (here is a marker)
4 comments:
Hi Todd. I'm curious what prompted you to make the correlation between air temperature and your dreams. Was it because you were having lots of "memory" dreams? Had you read something about it before? It would make sense that our sense of touch would be equally as powerful as our sense of hearing in creating subconscious memories. I think it's fascinating that you have recognized it. Not that YOU have...just that I've never thought about it before and that realization is fascinating. It makes me think of past periods when I couldn't sleep, or had powerfully real dreams, or when I was dreaming very intensely..where you wake up and feel like you haven't slept at all.....anyways my friend, thanks for giving me something interesting to think about!
Answer to your first question is yes.
I literally dreamt it up, the correlation that is. Technically it can't be called a correlation anyway. ^_^
ANY thoughts or theories have been thought of before us. So I won't be surprised if there is something like that in print, a thesis, a paper, a homework assignment, obviously with much more care, elaboration, technological viewpoints and psychology aspects. Mine is hardly original.
Thank you for giving it thoughts. It's one of my attempts in tapping into the unused human brain.
todd, youre blog looks fucking gorgeous.
glad you like it. I was getting tired looking at the old one. ^_^
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