Once again I find myself turning to my good friend Mark Twain for the insight that comes when you have been dead for a hundred years. In one of his more profound moments he remarked that one must, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” Every day I wake up with thoughts about what important facts from my past can I share with my readers.
Most of the time I realize the facts really are not very important, especially if they are merely things that happened in my little world decades ago. What is important is not what my friends or I did in some overcrowded high school, or even recalling the significant facts of history recorded in the newspapers of that time, but rather how those facts make me the person I am and enable me to relate a story to someone at this time.
As my life progresses it has become apparent to me people who have born witness to the exact same events at the exact same time as me do not see them in the exact same light. Actually, those who have known me the longest, my mother, brother and sister, seldom agree with the way I recount certain details of family events. Never accusing me of willfully distorting the truth, and often amazed at my ability to recall episodes they completely erased from their collective minds, they still manage to have an entirely different perception of facts. Fortunately, having served on juries for two different attempted murder trials I have seen how twelve intelligent individuals can watch and listen to the same witness and see and hear completely different stories.
Anyone who has ever worked with media knows the angle of the camera, the amount of light, and the placement of the microphone impacts the way an audience views a subject. Similarly, where we stand in relation to a mirror determines what kind of image we will see reflected.
Yesterday, as I read the preface to John Grogan’s follow up to Marley and Me, a second memoir titled, The Longest Trip Home, I questioned his ability to factually recount a conversation he had with his father six years prior to the publication of the book. My mental inquiry came about not because I thought Mr. Grogan attempted to distort what his father said, but aware plucking words from the past with precision without the aid of a recording device is nearly impossible.
Although I have yet to attempt recalling conversations from my past verbatim, the effort to remain true to the facts, only adding distortion based on knowledge acquired through time and hindsight, is one of the virtues of storytelling I value. So, when I hold the mirror up I am looking for an honest depiction reflected through the prism of time and rendered crystal clear through the filter on this writer’s tap. Nothing would be a greater honor than to have someone find wisdom in these reflections a hundred years after I am dead.
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