We watched the first film in the series - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. No matter that it was over 30 years old. He devoured it just as I remember doing all those years ago.
I couldn't help but think of the similarities of the first time I ever watched it. I sat with my father, on his knee shielding my eyes at the scary bits...and I do remember one particular conversation on that night. Indy leaves Marion prisoner when he has the chance to free her - he knows that if she disappears from her makeshift prison, bound to a tent pole, her captors will suspect he has returned and this will put the recovery of the Ark in jeopardy. I remember questioning my father incessantly as to why he didn't rescue her and, although he explained, I couldn't quite understand why the good guy hadn't simply done what the good guys do...
My son, sat on my knee, asked the very same question at the very same point - I tried to explain in the same way my father had to me. He seemed perplexed at the answer I gave and still questioned on - just as I had. It was uncanny. Perhaps it was coincidence but perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps, as soon as the conversation started, I travelled the same neural-networks I had all those years ago and almost 're-engineered' the conversation so that it fit with my model of the world.
It is said by many people in many ways that we do this all the time. Neurologists call it our Reticular Activating System, Psychologists call it a feedback loops and confirmation bias. Some people even explain it in a more mystical way 'if you dream and think it then the universe will bring it to you'. It's more subtle than that of course - It's how we filter things in or out that appear relevant, which can work both for us and against us. Like any filter, we allow certain information through and block some of it out in order to make sense of the world around us. In this case, my filter worked in quite an obvious way - by remembering an event from a previous time. Sometimes it is much more subtle than that - such as allowing only information through that confirms my original opinion on something to be true..
Either way - I did about as bad a job trying to explain it as my father did to me - proof that even with an effective filter, it doesn't mean we always learn from the past - even when history does seem to repeat itself!
