My brother and I have vastly different memories of our childhoods. We can recall the same events with completely independent perspectives. Raised by the same parents in the same house. We are 4 1/2 years apart. It's tempting when he comes up with a completely unique version of the story to dismiss his experience because it is different than mine. I was there, I KNOW what happened. The problem is, he was there too. So how do I reconcile two incompatible eye witness accounts?

I don't. I accept that we are two people who lived similar lives but not the same life. We are two people who came out of the same story with different narratives. Whenever I am tempted to get frustrated at a narrative I don't agree with I remind myself of my brother. The most important thing I can do, when someone tells me about an experience that I don't understand, is to listen.