How ‘The Notebook’ Teaches Us the Importance of Memory Preservation
One of the most well known movies based off the bestselling books by famous author Nicholas Sparks, “The Notebook,” is by far one of the most realistic dramas many of us could one day potentially be able to relate to—although we may not know it until the day it actually happens.
Spoiler alert for those who haven’t watched the movie or read the book yet…but a young Allie (played by actress Rachel McAdams) is a beautiful, young, vivacious, girl that comes from Southern money, who falls for a very humble, simple young man named Noah (played by actor Ryan Gosling). Their young love runs deep, but life set them out on different paths that made them grow apart tragically. Years later however, fate brought them back together again and gave their love a second chance.
As life carries us all forward through the years, Allie and Noah built a life and raised their children while growing older in their simple home, and their children gave them grandchildren. Years went by, decades, until they approached their final one. Allie sadly ends up developing Alzheimer’s disease and starts to forget about her life and her true love, Noah. It’s a love story that started out rocky, but somehow ends in a beautifully sad way.
The whole story is based on Noah rereading the very journal Allie kept of their whole life together, in hopes that rereading her life story would help her remember him and their love.
It got me thinking though. What if Allie never wrote down her life story in this book that Noah read back to her? Would she have just ended with not knowing or remembering her true life and love for Noah for the last few remaining years she had left? And that got me thinking how truly important it is that we preserve every memory and chapter of our life that we can as soon as we can.
Think of all those who suffered from Alzheimer’s at the very end as well. How sad that must have been for them and their families that they didn’t remember the best times of their life. If they didn’t record their stories or memories like Allie did, that means sadly the stories and memories were simply lost.
If you walk away from this movie or book learning anything, please take away that the time is now to preserve memories, not later when it could be too late. As we get older, memories tend to fade away. Do something now to preserve all that you can. You could end up in a Noah and Allie situation one day, and if you don’t preserve or record along the way, that could affect how your story ends. Let Reflekta help guide you and your loved ones on your memory preservation journey today.
