Starry heavens above and narrative within
You know how everything you see happened in the past? It’s not as drastic close by: whatever, the image of my hand vs. the landscape would be nanoseconds apart but if you look up in the sky.. it absolutely blows my mind, that you see stuff — at the same time — that happened millions and billions (no fact checking) [light]years ago. You see different pieces of past, right now.
Brain/mind has the same capacity. It holds everything that you ever experienced, learned, absorbed — can you imagine perceiving that all at the same time? It would be too loud and too in comprehensive. The concept of ego (how does this relate to me, why is it important to me, what does it mean to me) + time creates the backbone of narrative that saves us by filtering that ocean of information. It’s like a great serpent dragging its body across, weaving this way and that.