Just got back from class, a screening of a Japanese film, After Life, which I highly recommend. The premise of the film was this: at a station between Heaven and Earth, the recently dead have to decide which one of their memories from all their years on Earth they want to take with them to be their sole reminder of their life. Everything else gets forgotten.

Some chose their happiest moments (the moment a woman first saw her fiancee after believing he was lost in the war), others something ordinary (lying with her head in her mother's lap while the laundry dried). Some even chose sad or scary ones. A lot of people chose things that would give them some sense of all that they had achieved in their lives, or even just an external state (when the cherry blossoms are out). There were a lot f childhood memories. According to one of the helpers at the station, Disneyland was one of the most popular.

And even while I was watching the movie, part of my mind was wondering about it, trying to condense my life down to the one memory. I realize it may be pointless since I'm still closer to the beginning of my life than the end (I hope) and still have most of the major milestones to go (I hope), but it still feels like an impossible task.
It's actually great for me, it's made me aware of how many wonderful things there are in my life that I don't want to forget.

So I wanted to ask the question. In your lives so far, if you had to pick one memory to accompany you into the eternal, what would it be?

Maz"still working on my short-list"er31