“Adoption is just a metaphor here. You don’t have to literally believe yourself adopted to feel not part of a family. Many people feel at some point that other parents might have loved them more, appreciated them more. There’s a deep reason for the persistence of the changeling myth. Every little child is surrounded by family members pointing out his or her resemblance to this side or that side of the family. Her mother’s eyes, her father’s temper, all that. No child can hear that and not wonder at some level, well, what if I didn’t look like them? Would they still keep me?”
