(This piece first appeared on the Huffington Post on March 10, 2009)
Think about all the things that scared us when we were young. And how we ‘grew out of our fears.’
Stage fright becomes grace under pressure. Shivering at the edge of the high dive becomes a love of soaring. Fear of ignorance becomes scholarship. Fear for the well-being of others leads to a lifetime of healing.
Fear of being the new kid in school becomes the ability to make friends and find common ground in new situations.
When we are children, we have no choice. We walk through our fears because we are placed in environments where there’s no turning back. And then we grow out of it. (more…)
Barack Obama is an improviser. His campaign, his platform, his history, draws on a spirit kindled in the same Chicago South Side neighborhoods where modern improv was born in the 1930s.