Flashbacks

It's Republic Day here in Turkey. You always know it's a national holiday when the flags come out - and by the little icon of the Turkish flag and Ataturk displayed in the corner of the TV screens :) We have the day off, and we had yesterday afternoon as well. I plan to spend some time today considering my next steps.

If this return to blogging seems abrupt it's not really - I've been writing quite a lot since I've been here in Turkey. I've just been keeping it to myself :)

Watched an episode of Mad Men this morning (S01 E08). For those of you who watch, you'll be familiar with what I'm talking about (and for the others, I strongly suggest you start watching, from the beginning). We see some more of Don's flashbacks from his childhood in this episode, this time about a "rider of the rails" who stops by his family's farm (I use the term "family" loosely). Young Don tells the guy he's a "whore son" and the woman he lives with isn't his mother (we already kind of knew the latter). This situation really resonated with me. The bum tells little Don about the codes they use to tell each other how things are at the homes they visit - we learn Don's father is a "dishonest man" by the mark left by this traveler as he goes on his way.
I leave out a lot - again you should go and watch it yourself - but I love this show because like all true art, it selects pieces of the human reality and puts them up for our consideration. It really relies on us (the audience) a lot to connect the dots and to interpret them as we will, in the context of our own lives of course. I thought back to some of the memories I have from my childhood (been doing that a lot lately) and wondered, what makes us remember some things and forget others? Do we also select our own memories to be interpreted as we wish? Do dreams help us do this as well? More broadly - is life a collection of experiences put forth for us to build our own story, from which to infer deeper truths? What stories will I have built by the time I come to the end?