We develop a unique perception of our lives through the act of remembering. This ideology is conveyed in Hampl's short biographical sketch, "Holding Old Negatives Up to the Light". Hampl states, "The act of remembering becomes less autobiographical; it begins to feel tentative, aloof. It becomes blessedly impersonal"(Hampl 277). Though memories may become imprecise, our feelings from them remain accurate. And as memories feel more distant, they become more comfortable. Essentially, whatever is true to our heart is true to us. Furthermore, the heart only heals over time.
             What we are skeptical of remembering as true is still 'accurate' because the imagination triggered by our memory satisfies that this is valid. While our remembrances become impersonal and less autobiographical, we feel less embarrassed by them, as they integrate into our history. Hampl writes, "...in the act of remembering, the personal environment expands, resonates beyond itself, beyond its 'subject,' into the endless and tragic recollection that is history"(Hampl 277). Hence we acknowledge memory is subjective, though containing an inherent truth. Hampl reflects that we do not look at old family photographs of us standing around in the allure that we are young again, but rather that we are merely standing. Each situation is unrepeatable. Hampl believes we stare and drift looking at such old pictures because our past selves inhabit them, historically. She reveals how in memory we 'live again' in history and biography. And when history and biography come together, they form a narrative approaching fiction. This imprecision of memory causes us to create and extend remembrance into narrative.
             Hampl gives deep insight into how much power our memory possesses as she suggests "We may not have made a religion of memory, but it is our passion, and along with science, our au
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