Oh, Of Course, I Always Feel Unconfident.

Well, It Arose Out Of Two Long-term Concerns - The First Being The Possibility Of Genetic Manipulation, Nature Versus Nurture, What Constitutes How People Get To Be How They Are.

I Remember, In Hot Floods, The Way He Slept, Still As Death, With His Face Washed Flat, Stony As A Carved Tomb And Exquisite. His Weakness And His Ravening Bitter Needs Were Terrible, And Beautiful, And Irresistible As An Earthquake. He Scalded Or Smothered Anyone He Needed, But His Needing And The Hurt That It Caused Me Were The Most Life I Have Ever Had. Remember What A Poor Thing I Have Always Been And Forgive Me.

In Our Struggle To Restrain The Violence And Contain The Damage, We Tend To Forget That The Human Capacity For Aggression Is More Than A Monstrous Defect, That It Is Also A Crucial Survival Tool.

I Get Glimpses Of The Horror Of Normalcy. Each Of These Innocents On The Street Is Engulfed By A Terror Of Their Own Ordinariness. They Would Do Anything To Be Unique.

I Do Consider The Human Capacity For Violence Is The Central Issue Of The Social Contract. In Boxing We Have A Peculiarly Civilized Form, In That Boxers Don't Screech And Holler. They Don't Use Weapons. All Of This Seems To Me Quite Amazing, Because It Is So Disciplined, So Controlled. It's Ritualized, But Absolutely Genuine. And The Cultural Structure Built Around That Ritual Is Absolutely Fascinating To Me. And It Seems To Me That Boxing Is One Of Those Structures That Is Designed To Promote Harmony. I Think That It Is A Stove That Contains That Fire In Us And Makes It Safe And Useful.