Life Story

RIC_1455-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     How often do we tell our own life story? How often do

     we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life

     goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our

     account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely

     the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but

     - mainly - to ourselves.

       Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

History

RIC_1726-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     History is that certainty produced at the point where the

     imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of

     documentation.  ...  It's more the memories of the

     survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor

     defeated. 

       Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending