hard to believe.

I just watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because my wife read the book and because it's filmed in Sweden and, well, we needed some Sweden. It's a pretty dark movie but there is a great line in it: It’s hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain.

Of course there is the obvious fear of offending your grandparents by swearing at the dinner table but there is also the fear of telling someone no, of letting someone down, of breaking with the expected and ritualistic - when you know you are supposed to.