Reading by Lightning

I wonder how you choose what you're going to remember. That's what happened, I say about any particular event. But of course we recall only a tiny fraction of everything that occurred. If every day that went by I'd saved a whole other set of details and impressions, my life as I tell it to myself would be completely different. This is a rather crucial human limitation. If your situation changed dramatically (if, for example, you're walking down a road and are suddenly scooped up in a whirlwind and deposited somewhere else, like that man in the Bible was), you may need to start thinking about your life in a whole different way. But how can you do that when all you have for information is what you chose to remember at the time?

-- Joan Thomas, p. 13