Memoir writing

Is that what I’m doing? I’ve collected many stories from many people – about my father, about the ranch – and am puzzling about how to get at the truth when it’s different for everyone. It’s like having a pocket full of nickels. You put your hand in and they all feel the same, but when you pull them out and examine them, you see slight differences in age, lustre, abrasion, sometimes country of origin. The oldest of them have twelve edges, twelve angles! But you have asked for them and they’ve been proffered with the expectation that you will take them at face value. Getting below the surface is the challenge! I am more accustomed to “Ars Poetica”, writing that is “Dumb/As old medallions to the thumb”.