Wendy K. Laidlaw

And that was it.

That was it.

He got seen for what he had.

And then he became a real guitar player or actually became a musician.

And so we all are on that kind of path.

Everybody has it inside.

Part of us is looking for, we're trying to avoid the dragons, but we're also looking for the blessing.

And the blessing is when someone outside actually sees us, actually sees us and say, I see that.

So when I started working with gang kids and homeless kids and that kind of thing, which I did partly because I understood it a little bit,

And I would be working with these gangs and I would come and go because I had become an itinerant storyteller like a lot of our ancestors.

And I would come back around to that neighborhood and they'd say, oh, you remember so-and-so?

And remember her?

She committed suicide.

Remember him?

He's in jail for 20 years.

And these kids would be disappearing.

And I realized I may only have one moment or one chance to talk seriously to this young person who already is in danger.

What do I say that could be meaningful?

And it occurred to me to say to them, did you know you have genius?

Because genius is a well-known word, even though people aren't sure about it.