Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.

Summary

This quote reflects upon the distortion of memories over time. The speaker mentions how their experiences in the army have been condensed into a few memorable episodes that are retold in a standardized way at gatherings. However, they emphasize that these remembered anecdotes do not capture the true essence of their two years in the army or reflect the impact it had on their character and growth. The quote highlights the limitations of memory and how it can fail to capture the entirety and significance of past experiences.

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