Visiting the past, then doing it all over again. Why do we watch or read the same things over and over?

The Thinker by Rodin

People tell me I'm odd for a variety of reasons, but one of them isn't that I watch movies multiple times, or read books over and over, or listen to songs on a loop. Apparently a lot of people do the same thing, which leads me to wonder why? The story hasn't changed, so we know how it ends, and our feelings about it are probably the same (if not more fond and pleased about the item). Actually, we can widen the question to why we revisit old memories? It's a funny quirk, because the memories may not even be faded much at all--think of all the people who'll see a movie and then go back the next day and watch it again.

I think it's because we want the burst of emotions we felt the first time. The emotions may not be as strong, but they remain and are reinforced. That's why we love hearing stories concerning people we know, not because we haven't heard them before but the act of hearing them again refreshes the memory and keeps it alive. It's likely the reason people are so afraid of dementia diseases such as Alzheimers--because a great part of who we are resides in our memories. Since stories in hard print (movies, books, photos, and such) are unchanging they are great memory refreshers.

For me, I'll return to movies and books all the time. I have favorites I've re-read dozens of times, or watched a hundred times or more (I can quote the original Star Wars series pretty much verbatim). It's funny, but with music I'll remember the instrumental tune but haven't the foggiest about lyrics. Well, what we choose to remember varies I guess.

So, do you have something you revisit again and again and again?

- M