The story of your childhood has been told by several ages of you.

Your childhood has been narrated by a series of different people, all of them you. The version at twelve, at twenty-five, at forty, each edited by what you needed to believe at the time about your parents, your worth, and what happened. The events have not moved and the account has been rewritten several times without you noticing the revisions.

Try telling one childhood story and asking how you would have told it ten years ago. The gap is informative. It usually says more about what you have needed than about what occurred.