While researching, I came across a terrific article Speak, Memory by neurologist Oliver Sacks and the lovely animated film above of Billy Collin's poem "Forgetfulness" that have me thinking about the role of memory in storytelling --not merely as an exercise in memoir -- but more importantly fulfilling a deeply embedded need to tell stories. We learn quickly to construct narrative in answer to almost any question about our day, our life, or our work. But according to neurologist Oliver Sacks, we really become creative with narrating long term memories -- giving them shape and form, creating dialogue, selecting images to emphasize how we feel emotionally about those memories. But we also appropriate memories that are not our own -- and braid them into our memories because the additional information makes better stories. "Memory," Sacks says, "is dialogic and arises not only from direct experience but from the intercourse of many minds." And like the paradox of fiction, our memories into story are both lies and truth. And then there is the opposite, as the Collin's poem suggests, grief at the loss of memory because it leaves us with fewer words and impairs our ability to tell stories.