memories

I read an article in a magazine about writing your memoirs. I guess I thought memoirs were the same as writing your autobiography but according to the article this is not so. The article stated that memoirs are what it sounds like, memories written as though you were reliving them. The only problem I have with the concept is that my memory is not quite what it used to be. I tend to remember like I dream; in snippets and bits. More a since of the memory than the detail of the memory. In fact if I try to remember so things my mind starts to perceive the memory as imagined. So that leaves me in a state of confusion with a sense of loss. Like a part of myself that I have "remembered" is no longer real so a part of myself is gone. Since we live such busy lives and so many events occur during those lives, our memory bank can get very full. I believe that some memories get compressed to make room for new. They don't go away but become increasingly difficult to access. And since there is so much information flying past us at all times our memories become sullied with bits and pieces that don't belong. Thus when the memory is accessed it may not be totally true to the actual event. This fact makes a person wary of writing ones memoirs. Afraid that the memory they are writing about might not actually be their own or totally imagined. Very much like those tales that old men tell getting bigger with each telling. So I think that I would much rather write memories with disclaimer at the front warning the reader that the memories is based on a fact but may not be totally factual.