SOUVENIR -- ISN'T THAT FRENCH?

Souvenir is a rather complex word in the French language.  It is a noun with many meanings, some of which are rather philosophical and some which have fallen into complete desuetude.  It is also a verb that is what is called, "essentially reflexive."  It's like calling our crazy-bone the same thing.  Another interesting thing about this word is that it looks like it comes from the marriage of two Latin words, the first of which means "under" and the other "come." So, whatever that means when you talk about remembering is too far beyond me at this late hour to get into.  Besides, I do know that in English "Souvenir" means money spent for some mysterious reason that I have still to fathom.  It is one of those things that has become so automatic in our culture that not too many people think about the meaning of their actions.  Every time someone comes back from the far corners of the world and gives me a token "souvenir" I invariably ask myself, "Now what am I supposed to be remembering?"  Not being a person who very easily drags the past along with him into the present, and even less into the future, souvenirs are quite a challenge.  Now, if I have that attitude about my past, I want to know what that says about my attitude about your past visit to the land where whale teeth make jewelry.  I can't help it.  If I bring something home for you from the moon, let's say, what am I asking you to remember (souvenir)?  You weren't on the moon, so that's a blank.  Maybe I hope you'll remember that I went to the moon and was lucky enough to get back?  Maybe I want you to remember that the moon is not really made of green cheese?  I just told you my age with that last one, right?  I don't have any souvenirs of that, except the one at the top right of the page.  1978 that was!  Don't forget it.  Maybe if I give you a souvenir I want you to remember that I remembered that I would tickle you into remembering that I remembered to bring you something from the moon that would help you to remember that I remembered to make you remember by taking up more space on your nick-knack shelf?  
The kicker to this thing is this.  Our memories are deteriorating so fast that when we travel we forget some rather important stuff and it is lost forever.   But we don't forget to remember to make your remember that we remembered to make you remember that we remembered.  What?
Last part of the thought is this:  I know that the Voice from the kitchen doesn't agree with this.  So just don't tell her that I said this.  Besides she has already bought you all a French Fry from La Salette so that you can ...  you got the picture.  
PS:  We have 3,000 photos that you just HAVE to see.  The golden age of digital cameras with rechargeable batteries that NEVER die.