I don’t know about the seitan part–I can’t get enough of the stuff, myself–but for me, it certainly applies to skiing, which I took up late in life. Though it’s also true that for most of my adult life, I’ve had a fear of going downhill fast (I can actually bike uphill way faster than downhill), but as a kid I used to fly down hills on my bike with no helmet and no fear. Now I just imagine hitting a pothole and flying off the bike the whole time.

It’s really too bad we don’t have more fear over our instincts. Clearly, sometimes they serve us well. I didn’t read “Blink,” but I accept that sometimes the gut thinks faster than the head, and hell, why not benefit from the lessons your genes learned but you haven’t experienced personally. OTOH, would it kill us to be able to override the paralysis when we’ve done a careful cost-benefit analysis and decided that yes, a few minutes of very careful driving provides benefits that outweigh the discernable but tolerable risks?

Also, did you read the book Empire Falls by Richard Russo? There’s a very funny description of the protagonist’s difficult relationship with his driving instructor in high school.

Your driver-instincts are there, just buried deep down. Like everything else, what makes you a good driver is practice, practice, practice. You can do it girl!!