filesFrom the real, lived-in world too each generation of creators draws the models for its myth figures. It is common knowledge that Rembrandt sought models for his Christ and his Apostles in the young Jews of his town. So, far less consciously, do human beings of every generation make myths of each other. Get a bunch of North Winnipegers together and let them start reminiscing, and amid the ensuing laughter I begin to wonder, did these people really live? Did I walk among them? Yes, for my sense of my own vitality, of the validity of my existence is somehow contingent on this recognition of them. --from Adele Wiseman's OLD WOMAN AT PLAY