-You liked Roshomon. That’s not the way I remember it.-
Think About It. Memory.
Recently, while attempting to document some of the facts of my life, I realized that I had begun a task that many people seem to have accomplished, but I felt unable to accurately do. It seemed that the best I could achieve was my version of fuzzy recollections, colored by time and desire.
Let’s begin with the recognition that memory is fragile. It is inherently faulty, woefully inadequate as a tool for proof of the past. Memory is, however, at any given moment, the way we see ourselves and our understanding of our relationships to others and the world around.
Memory is modified by stories we’ve heard about our prior experiences, knowledge gained at a later date, understanding of how things really work, etc. What we call memory is then the collection of thoughts regarding an action or reaction to environment perhaps long past.
Even memory of a recently observed happening is almost guaranteed to be faulty. Think of Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” which illustrates that truth is subjective and factual accuracy is uncertain. More commonly, consider the disparate observations of otherwise credible accident witnesses.
It seems that autobiographies are a mixture of self service, aggrandizement, negative self- judgment, plea for forgiveness, egotism, ignorance all wrapped into a profession of truth.
All this, I suppose, is in defense of the fact that what I’m telling is the truth as I see it here and now. And for all of us, it is the best we can do with our Memory. Think About It