When passion comes late in life it is harder to give up. And those who meet this beast late in life are offered only devilish choices. Will they say goodbye to what they know and set sail on an unknown sea with no certainty of land again? Will they dismiss those everyday things that have made life tolerable and put aside the feelings of old friends, a lover even? In short, will they behave as if they are twenty years younger with Canaan just over the bridge?

Not usually.

And if they do you will have to strap them to the mast as the boat pulls away because the siren calls are terrible and they may go mad at the thought of what they have lost.

Another choice is to learn to juggle. This soon tires the hands if not the heart

The third is to refuse the passion as one might sensibly refuse a leopard in the house, however tame it might seem at first.You might reason that you can easily feed a leopard and that your garden is big enough, but you will know in your dreams at least that no leopard is ever satisfied with what it's given. There is never enough to eat, never enough garden for your love. And so you refuse and then you discover your house is haunted by the ghost of a leopard.

When passion comes late it is hard to bear.

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion.