Penpal

by Dathan Auerbach

The events of our lives unfold linearly, but in the mental reel of these past experiences, most of the frames that haven’t been completely stolen by time are left distorted and blurred by it. When you try to reconstruct the series, you find that it isn’t complete, but maybe this never really bothers you, because you can’t miss what you don’t remember.

We want so badly to be happy – to live the kinds of lives that we always hoped we’d live – that we give gifts

to ourselves by remembering things not as they were, but as we wish they were.

Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself. – Harlan Ellison