
I have this recurring dream. In it, I am clinging to a rock face, hundreds of feet up, and completely paralyzed. I've done a little abseiling in my time, but going down is easy. It's hauling oneself up, inch by inch, that presents the challenge. It's not so much that I'm afraid of heights, really. I've taken helicopter rides, and been on big dippers, and things like that. What terrifies me, I believe, is the concept of being so close to life-ending disaster; the idea that one slip, one misjudgment, a moment of weakness, might send me plummeting to my [...]