[David]

How nice. Always great to hear from Stevie. I even like the Stevieisms, like "slightly euphoric." (I am passionately noncommittal about Stevieisms. I find them extravagantly nondescript.)

Applying a little explication de texte here, I think even her rambly syntax and word choice betray something deeper and darker - about herself. This seems like classic projection in a clinical sense, but what does it mean? A 72-year-old with a lifelong little-girl outlook on the world is not surprisingly having intimations of her own mortality, but I think these references to guilt and regret and being "destroyed" indicate something really, really deep and dark. They aren't just arbitrary diaryspeak. She is a fascinating person and a transcendent, generous artist, and yet Stevie is unsettled in her castle. She is not at peace, I think.

"If we don't get ahead of this now, we will live with such guilt and regret that it will destroy us."

That isn't an Old Testament, prophet-from-the-hills moment. Stevie is talking about herself.