Is there a contrast between the truth of our lives & the story that we tell of our existence?

Yes, I think there is. Yet you can’t provide an unbiased perspective on your own life, and neither can anyone else, so that gap is always there even when not intended to be. I think this gap is widened by people’s choices though – because everyone makes a narrative out of their life. It might just be in turning experiences into anecdotes, but when George Orwell talked about the internal monologue he had in his early twenties, of how he narrated his own life as he lived it, I was surprised to see how he associated this with his interest in writing. I never thought that other people didn’t do it – because I do it. Not all the time, but often.  I thought everyone else did, because I know plenty of people who do, people who don’t consider themselves writers (although I have no way of knowing whether they write in their free time or not). Everyone sees themselves as the primary focus of everything because our own perspective is the only one completely available to us. So I assumed that it was also common for therefore see things as a narrative in which we were the protagonist (not necessarily hero).

If I were going to ask people to respond to this (no point, I doubt this will get comments but even then it would still only be commented on by other writers who’ll be predisposed to this practice) I’d be interested to know whether this is really as uncommon as Orwell made it sound.