On a spiritual level, it's as though with my sighted eye I see what's before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what's hidden. It's illuminated life more than darkened it.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

I see my role as a scholar announcing that women's feelings of unworthiness and insecurity often may be traced to training in a male-oriented religion, and I'm trying to investigate a richer spiritual life for both sexes.

The more comedic roles come easier to me though because I see myself as a silly, easy-going person.

I see so much more than I used to see. The effect has been to depress and sadden and hurt me terribly.