Gary Gulman

We've arrived at Act 2 of our program, Act 2.

Grown-ups know things.

That title is actually a line from Lord of the Flies.

Piggy says it, that grown-ups have a cup of tea and talk things through, and then everything is all right.

That's how grown-ups do it.

It's hopeful.

It's hopeful.

And of course, you know, wrongheaded.

So often things don't work out that well here in the adult world.

But in the story, it's this moment where a bunch of the boys chime in with their desire that they could turn to adults.

And in this next act, a girl turns to an adult with that same kind of hope that the adult will set things right.

But over time, the adults that she turns to simply do not agree about some very fundamental things about her.

Eleanor Gordon Smith reported this story for a book she wrote.

I just felt very adrift in the world and unanchored.

Having lost my father, my best friend, I was so alone and I just, I was reaching out for something to feel connected to.

She rubbed my back and it was very, very uncomfortable and I had a pretty strong reaction to it.

So I'm sitting across from Dr. Corwin, and there's a video camera.

I'm getting ready to watch the tapes of myself at five years old, and he went through a very lengthy informed consent.

Finally, we got to the point where he was going to shut off the video camera so that I could watch my five-year-old self.

And he asked me, you know, what do you recall?