This All Happened

‰ЫПWhen you describe an experience, what you are recounting is your memory of the act, not the act itself. Experiencing a moment is an inarticulate act. There are no words. It is in the sensory world. To recall it and to put words to it is to illustrate how one remembers the past, rather than actually experiencing the past. Keep this in mind as you read to words of others as they remember an incident.‰Ыќ

‰ЫПCatholics rehearse their stories. They tell stories over and over. The same story, torquing it a little, realizing a certain detail is not working, adding stuff. I‰ЫЄve heard the same two dozen stories out of Lydia about thirty times. And then there are the daily stories. Events that happen that she recounts. She‰ЫЄll tell me, and then she‰ЫЄll call Daphne, and then her brother phones and she tells her brother. The thing I find interesting about this story-telling thing is that if you heard only one of these stories, you‰ЫЄd think she was telling it for the first time. The enthusiasm behind it. That‰ЫЄs definitely a Catholic thing. Protestants tell a story once and it‰ЫЄs over with. They feel self-conscious to tell the story again. They are aware of who has already heard the story. Protestants tell a story best the first time; Catholics, the last time.‰Ыќ