Oh, I wanted to respond to that earlier — didn’t have time this morning. I wish I had quoted my father as saying “You acted like you could take on the world,” which would have captured the meaning better, even though I think he did say “take the world by storm”. Both my parents said that as a young child, I seemed — as compared to my brother or the average child — fearless. My brother seemed shy and wary of new situations while I would jump right in. Unusually happy-go-lucky and confident… that was the perception of both my parents. But one thing that makes that perception so striking is that it contrasts so markedly with people’s at other points. There have been a lot of points in my life where people interpreted me as paralyzed by fear. My experiences with driving were in some ways similar to swimming. People have always imagined failing behind the wheel (and never getting a license) was solely a matter of fear, and refused to believe that it could be really, really difficult for me. If one doesn’t realize either the level of fear people have thought they’ve seen in me at points — or the level of fearlessness — it’s hard to see some of what what the piece is exploring. It takes a lot of skill — or revision — to simultaneously stay on topic and go off.
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