A recent episode of This American Life featured a piece by a guy who lost his long-term memory as a result of anti-malarial drugs he was given while studying abroad in India. (Nightmare scenario or what?) He “woke up” one day in a train station with no memories, not even of his family.
Some folks helped him get in touch with his mother — he remembered her email address but not her name, her face, or her voice. When he got home, his fiance was one of the first people to greet him. Not only did he not remember her, he did not love her. In fact, he couldn’t even conceive of himself loving her.
Besides being one of the saddest stories evar, it makes you think about the Big Questions. Like, what exactly IS love, then? How can it be that the only thing that makes this life worth living can be erased by a hit of synthetic chemicals?
Wow, creepy. Love certainly is a chemical response, but to think it could be erased this way is chilling.
Chilling is right… I mean, what if you had kids? Would you just forget you loved *them*?
I think this affected me particularly badly because I heard the story on Valentine’s Day when I was feeling all mushy… I couldn’t bring myself to post about it right away and harsh all the lovers’ mellow.