Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

Hard, awkward facts soften with distance until only an atmosphere is left. What felt like an unbearable specific at the time becomes, years later, a general impression with the edges gone. That is a mercy for painful things and a hazard for accurate ones, since it works on evidence as readily as on grief.

Two uses follow. When something is currently sharp, it may help to know that the sharpness is not permanent, though nothing about that is required of you now. And when a decision matters, write down what actually happened at the time, because your memory of it will grow rounder and more agreeable than the facts were.