Pattern Separation
During the long weeks of the lock down, the days slid by, one becoming another with nothing to mark the progression from week to week. Standing by the window, I watched the parade of freighters. They became a meditation: as the world slowed, their individuality became more pronounced, each ship unique even as the days themselves remained monotonously the same.
When days repeat with little variation, our minds begin to bend time. With few events to mark “before” and “after”, time runs together. Psychologists call the resulting inability to differentiate memories pattern separation.
