Phenomenology #01: Phenomenology And Memory

The first episode of a new video series on in depth phenomenology. What is memory? Using some of the ideas of Boss, Binswanger and Husserl, we begin to explore the concept of memory and how it appears to consciousness. Since everything exists within the self, and all perception is drawn from the present, understanding what memory is to us becomes a lot more challenging than it may seem.

[Zematus]

When I'm at work, pulling an order and I see a tear of plastic trash on the ground before me, it used to irk me. It caused me irritation to notice objects we would consider trash, since we have a clean-as-you-go policy and it could possibly flag me as negligent if a supervisor notices that I avoided this article, one of possible many. It is not uncommon to find splinters of wood or plastic wrap like this, since a stocker cuts wrap and inserts his forks from the lift several times (this increasing the likelihood of breaks in the wood). It irks me because I'm the one expected to clean it, though it has nothing really to do with me, but almost always is caused by these employees stocking the pallet to replenish inventory on the ground.
I'm blamed, because the objects cause damage to MY equipment if I ignore them and run them over. They get caught in the wheels, the bearings, etc.
The reason it used to agitate me is because it causes me loss in time. This time adds up, combined with every other unfactored delay throughout the day, week and month.

Did I create that piece of plastic? My memory of its unwelcome inconvenience and burden, for so many years the same, but overcome only when my numbers are up and the delay, less of sting now, when the chances of it affecting the output of my work is reduced.

Do I ever want to see garbage in my way while I work? No. I don't.
So, why are they constantly appearing. Why does everyone else ignore it? How am I able to suffer it now without bitterness, even as I pick it up an instant after someone steps over it?
A recent change in the last few years I have been able to make peace with.

When I head home and see a neighbor broken down on the side of the road. I remember the Lord's command to not ignore a fellow who's animal is on its side. That I should help them get it upright. My first inclination is to drive past and get home to my family and meal. My fear of God's displeasure in me flares up to a maddening level, often to the point I turn back, though it costs me twice the time to take several exits to be where I was before I hesitated to just pull over the first time. But either way, did I create this poor fellow, who is often in such a wretched state that they do not have a spare tire for the flat, any tools to service the problem, or even the know how to accomplish it..
Did I create this incompetence and this inconvenience to imagine myself as useful? Do I want this? Not really. Does it make me feel good? It is merely a burden of responsibility and duty now, so not really, though I have come to lovingly share what I know and spend a few words with others and accept the delay. The sacrifice of effort. The sacrifice of time.

As much as I might notice, there are a million things I can interface with and still not comprehend. Just as i could read the same line, 'Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.' a thousand times, but only today understand that it is an abomination to destroy something with what should have nourished it.
How did my memory fail me so many years, and so many hundred times, but today, today I understood it with my heart, where before it was my mind that exhausted its effort.

Does my mind make the plastic? Or is it the careless stocker, the negligent driver who doesn't mind his tires or the road..? Am I by myself in the world, or not?

[JohnnyHofmann]

Great video. Super interesting.
I was just curious, are you a mereological nihilist when it comes to metaphysics?