At the same time, the retelling of a memory or indeed of any story requires a huge amount of details to be left out. That is, just as it is impossible to retell a memory (or tell a story) with true objectivity, it is impossible to tell the "full" story of any given incident. There is simply too much that goes on in any given incident to be recaptured and accurately retold in a concise manner, and in addition there may be many conflicting details that seem to have opposing effects on the overall perception of an event. Each memory/story is necessarily retold from a certain more narrow perspective. In the case of Vowell's essay, this perspective is the basic understanding of her family that she provides in the opening paragraphs of her story; only the incidents that relate to this perspective are included in her telling.

Knowing that this limitation/narrowing of focus is a natural and necessary result of storytelling and writing in general can provide many useful ways to allow readers into my own writing. The perspective/focus of a telling could -- and almost certainly should -- be consciously decided before the writing is begun, possibly even in the brainstorming stages of the writing process. The various elements of a story that fit the perspective/focus...

It is important, and something of a relief, to know that all parts of a story cannot be told, and that one shouldn't even try to do such a thing. By limiting the perspective of a piece of writing, one is actually given more freedom to fully explore the notions and concepts raised by that perspective and that telling, instead of becoming bogged down and effectively imprisoned in an attempt to say everything about a subject/story.
In this essay, I have tried to explain the way that form necessarily dictates, to a large degree, the content of a piece. It does this mainly by limiting perception; the words of the content are not changed by the form, but the limitations of the form manifest themselves in the overall tone and meaning of the content. Rather than seeing this as a negative thing, this essay attempts to prove that it is in fact a necessary and beneficial aspect of writing. memory provides one of the clearest examples of this relationship, as all memory is selectively filtered (both consciously and unconsciously). This is no different than any other type of writing, fiction or non-fiction, but simply provides an explicit example of the phenomenon that most people can identify with.