I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down.

As Chekov said, “Others made me a slave, but I must squeeze the slave out of myself, drop by drop.” Which I interpret to mean, You work hard to acquire self-knowledge so that you may look directly at the cards that life has dealt you, and learn to play them rather than regret them, thereby giving yourself the greatest single strength a human being can possess: knowing what you can live with and what you can’t live with – and why. That, I came to realize, is independence.”

- Vivian Gornick “What independence has come to mean to me” in “The Bitch in the House” edited by Cathi Hanauer.

I realised last night that this complacent little pig’s house is still made of straw.