I really liked your essay, and feel like I should jump in here to comment on Ray's misspeaking. I have a kind of speech apraxia that meant I spent years in speech therapy as a child and still have people asking me today what my first language or if I'm French (I'm actually Irish Canadian). If I'm tired or stressed, my speech becomes worse and I stumble over words if I've just read them or don't use them very often. I've always thought Ray stumbling over words were symptomatic of a sort of apraxia or aphasia (as you said), which definitely doesn't mean he's stupid! (and thank you again for making that such a big point in your essay!) Anyway, that's my two cents.