Memory retention

While browsing other blogs, I picked up an idea that struck me in Alex's blog. The quotation on page 61, "If something is to stay in the memory, it must be burned:only that which never ceases to hurt stays in the memory", is an exact quote that interested me while I was reading. I think this is an interesting thought and although it may be harsh, its not totally unrelatable. We don't see the everyday extreme punishment that Nietzsche may be speaking of, pain is one of the best ways for people to retain information. If you go through a situation that is truly painful, it is not easily forgotten. Sometimes, the situations that hurt us the most are the things that stay with us the longest. You may want to forget these things, deleting them from your history, but they never seem to leave.