Though I like parables, the racing car references are largely lost on me, so I suspect I've missed some of the point. Which is a useful reminder to me that we can't ever assume that people get the references in the parables I sometimes use.

To clarify - is your YF still part of your life? I can relate to 'falling in love' with a YF as being the point when you self-identify as a BL; it was when I was 18 and my new YF was 9 I realised there was an issue - before that always having 14 year olds as YF wasn't really a problem even though I was 18...