Dueling Memories

I’m feeling a little bit like Big Tech is taunting me this morning.  Our February break has just ended, and Facebook, Shutterfly, and Google Photos have all decided that this would be a good opportunity to remind me that I have had much more interesting February vacations in the past. 

Shutterfly:   Hey, remember this?  National Margarita Day in Tucson! 

Me: Yes.  I remember…vaguely.

Facebook:  How ‘bout this one?  Parasailing in paradise last year!

Me:  Yes, I remember, just two weeks before the shutdown.  Seems like so long ago.

Google Photos:  Oh, look what I just found.  It’s you and Nancy on horses at sunset.

Me:  Okay, enough.  

This year’s break may not have been so photo-worthy.  Still, I can fight back at Big Tech Memory.  There’s this example of the human kind:

Nancy has just received a shipment of black raspberries from a high school friend who, out of the blue, sends her periodic gifts of food.  “You seem like you could use an ice cream break,” reads the note inside the package.  This friend remembered that in college Nancy dreamed of being an ice cream chef and mogul.  She also remembered that her favorite flavor is black raspberry.    She also remembered that Nancy is going through radiation treatments. 

This weekend, Nancy makes perhaps the greatest black raspberry ice cream I have ever tasted. Take that, Google Photos! Did you say touché, Shutterfly Memories? In your face, Facebook. Humans remember, too, and then they send things that let you make ice cream…and new memories.

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