Obligations, like gratitude, are assumed, not compelled.
What others impose upon you indicates a lack of trust—
neither freedom nor trust make sense without the other.
How well might we do in a game that wasn't rigged?
Spectacular secular protection first erected then erased,
the projects, once started, once essential or at least vital,
that now we wouldn't remember if reminded,
the relative calm of a tempest in a teacup in a tempest—
those circumstances under which a failure to transgress
may prove to be the greater transgression.
Does potential factor into possibility and probability?
Creating iterations is easy; comparing them, less so.
The first lesson is that one is not invulnerable.
The second, much harder, is that one is irreparable.