“Did you think that your feet had been boundBy what gravity brings to the ground?Did you feel you were trickedBy the future you picked?Well, come on down”

“Did you feel me up when you were tying me down?" "Um, no. Did you want me to?""Well, it would have been nice.”

“Take a moment to think about the context in which your next decision will occur: You did not pick your parents or the time and place of your birth. You didn't choose your gender or most of your life experiences. You had no control whatsoever over your genome or the development of your brain. And now your brain is making choices on the basis of preferences and beliefs that have been hammered into it over a lifetime - by your genes, your physical development since the moment you were conceived, and the interactions you have had with other people, events, and ideas. Where is the freedom in this? Yes, you are free to do what you want even now. But where did your desires come from?”

“Well, I can understand how you feel. You worked hard, studying for the spelling bee, and I suppose you feel you let everyone down, and you made a fool of yourself and everything. But did you notice something, Charlie Brown?" "What's that?""The world didn't come to an end.”

“When you had to do something, you had to do it. And eventually, if you were lucky, you did it well.”

“Once the world was pulled out from beneath your feet, did you ever get to stand on firm ground again?”