A pice of metaphoric advice for a headstrong, naive teenage daughter I found lurking as a draft on Facebook from 2011

We all come up against obstacles in our path right?  They are sort of like rivers. You can cross.  You can sit on the bank.  You can turn around and go back.  But what if you’re Frodo Baggins being chased by ring wraiths?  Standing still is not an option.  Reversing course is not an option.  You have to get across.  You have to do it now.

I don’t know what the ideal option is: wade, swim, boat, bridge.  I am pretty sure though that the way to get across is NOT by picking out the one bridge you like best, burning every other one, sinking every available boat and stocking the river with sharks with fricking laser beams on their heads – all before you’ve actually made it across.