On the past being a ghost, the best treatment of it I've encountered is the short story Truth of Fact, Truth of Feeling [1]. It's so worth the complete read, so I hate to reduce it to a quote, but the critical bit is:
> We rewrite our pasts to suit our needs and support the story we tell about ourselves.
> We rewrite our pasts to suit our needs and support the story we tell about ourselves.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_o...