Like a Rolling Stone
Djibouti, February 7, 2012
Salaroche

A rolling stone gathers no moss, says the saying, and if by "moss" they mean possessions, then I'm certainly a rolling stone. Would memories qualify for moss in this context? I don't think so, for the more you travel the more people you meet, the more sights you see, and the more circumstances you're involved in, which is to say that the more you travel the more memories you gather.

Rolling Stones gather memory moss.

Attachments, however, have, in my case, the word "moss" written all over them, as thus far I haven't gathered much of those. Yet, I'm very aware that this statement may not apply to every other rolling stone out there, as nowadays many people don't even need to meet other people personally to get attached to them. Many Facebook or Twitter users, for example, won't ever in their lives shake hands with each other, yet they seem unable to live without communicating with each other on a daily basis.

This Rolling Stone gathers lots of moss of the memory kind, but not much moss of the attachment kind.

But some memories can generate attachment too; does this mean that the more memories we gather the more we're exposed to gathering attachments as well? Well, I guess it would depend on how much of ourselves we invest in our memories. For example, how much of our identity is invested in our childhood memories? How often do we consciously cheer or regret any particular event that took place when we were 4 or 5 years old, or even when we were 14 or 15? If we cherish or hate any of those memories with great intensity, then that probably means we're attached to them with a similar degree of intensity as well.

The same would apply to the rest of the memory moss we've gathered while rolling down the river of our lives. For example, how attached am I to the memory moss I gathered while living in El Salvador? Or to the one I gathered while living in Korea, or Malta, or Japan, or Mexico, or Turkey? How about the memory moss I gathered in France, China or Saudi Arabia, or in any of the other countries I've lived in or have gone through? And what about you? How atached are you to the memory moss you've gathered throughout your life?

Gathering memory moss is inevitable, as remembering is one of the prime functions of our minds, but avoiding to get attached to that moss is possible to a very large extent too.

The memories we've gathered through our lives will amount to cosmic moss only in direct proportion to the intensity with which we attach ourselves to them. If the memories we've gathered basically amount to watching pictures on a screen, without much emotional significance attached to them, then those memories won't amount to much cosmic moss, and consequently they won't stain us or make our load heavier as far as the transcendental world is concerned.

A Rolling Stone gathers no moss, says the saying and, fortunately, it applies to this Rolling Stone to a very good degree. May it also apply to all you other Rolling Stones in the degree that you need.

Salaroche