Day to day Quote by Jennifer Senior
““In that same lecture, Kahneman confessed that the outsize power of the remembering self mystified him. “Why do we put so much weight on memory relative to the weight we put on experiences?” he asked the audience. “This is a bit hard to justify, I think.” But perhaps the answer is obvious: children. The remembering self ensures that we’ll keep having them. More than almost anything else, the experience of parenthood exposes the gulf between our experiencing and remembering selves. Our experiencing selves tell researchers that we prefer doing the dishes—or napping, or shopping, or answering emails—to spending time with our kids. (I am very specifically referring here to Kahneman’s study of 909 Texas women.) But our remembering selves tell researchers that no one—and nothing—provides us with so much joy as our children. It may not be the happiness we live day to day, but it’s the happiness we think about, the happiness we summon and remember, the stuff that makes up our life-tales.””
About This Quote
Source Article: The Atlantic, “The Power of the Remembering Self” by Jennifer Senior, 2022
Our remembering self values children and family more than daily experiences, shaping life narratives despite mundane preferences.
In simple terms: Memory values family over daily tasks.
Cherish family memories.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- parenting
- memory keeping
- storytelling
- psychology
- life planning
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you balance daily duties with family time?
- What memories define your life story?
Memory can distort present reality.