Charlotte Jackson

The amateur believes that, before she can act, she must receive permission from some Omnipotent Other — a lover or spouse, a parent, a boss, a figure of authority.

They will try to entice us to get stoned with them or fuck off with them or waste time with them, as we've done in the past, and when we refuse, they will turn against us and talk us down behind our backs. At the same time, new people will appear in our lives. They will be people who are facing their own fears and who are conquering them. These

We’re both returning to the site of something that shifted our lives. The end of her great adventure. The beginning of mine.

When we turn pro, we stop running from our fears. We turn around and face them.

What happens when we turn pro is, we finally listen to that still, small voice inside our heads. At last we find the courage to identify the secret dream or love or bliss that we have known all along was our passion, our calling, our destiny.

The Daily Show reported recently that scientists in Japan had invented a robot that is capable of recognizing its own reflection in a mirror. "When the robot learns to hate what it sees," said Jon Stewart, "it will have achieved full humanity."

I think the fact that he wasn’t flawless in this gave me ammunition to poke holes. To disregard him. I remembered what his mother said. This happens a lot with people who espouse idealism. We want to feel better about our mediocrity, so we look for the holes.