Deep Water by William O. Douglas:
Deep Water by William O. Douglas: Background William O. Douglas, later a US Supreme Court Justice, tells this story in the first person. He describes a fear that began in early childhood and shaped his life until he deliberately took it on. The chapter reads like a small case study of fear: how it starts, how it grows, and how it can be defeated. 1. The seed of fear At the start, the young Douglas is fascinated by water. In Yakima, Washington, the Y.M.C.A. had just built a swimming pool, and he wanted to learn to swim. But there was already an old scar. When he was three or four, his father had taken him to a beach in California, where a big wave knocked him down and swept over him. He felt breathless and terrified, and the memory stayed with him. So when he approached the pool at ten or eleven, he was eager and afraid at once. This detail matters because it shows that the fear was already there, waiting for a trigger. 2. The pool incident He started going to the pool and was re...