Dufayel: Is she in love with him?
Amelie: Yes.
D: I think it's time she took a real risk.
A: She might. She's devising a strategem.
D: She's fond of stratagems.
A: Yes.
D: In fact, she's cowardly.
It's true-- like Amelie, I too am a coward. Not when it comes to everything, necessarily (the other day I pursued and caught a cricket in our apartment, for example), but at least in the sense that I typically find it easier (and safer) to plan, organize, and schematize my thoughts in my moleskin rather than subject them to this rough and dirty external world, where I just might fall and scrape my knees. But that's just the point: when I was a kid, the blood running down my shins more often than not meant that I was having fun and doing something totally rad.
So with the training wheels now on the shelf in the garage and my imitation Reeboks tightly velcroed, I will wobble my way down the road towards the sun of bright, new things. And if I end up in the ditch instead, muddy and bruised? Well that'll just make the ride all the more fun...
