My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.

Maybe, the hope said. Maybe.

Maybe it would be better if we didn't love. If we didn't lose, either. If we didn't get out hearts stomped on, shattered; if we didn't have to patch and repatch it until we're like Frankenstein monsters, all sewn together by who knows what

That's the thing: We didn't really care. A world without love is also a world without stakes.

Human beings, in their natural state, are unpredictable, erratic, and unhappy. It is only once their animal instincts are controlled that they can be responsible, dependable, and content.

Quiet through the grave go I; or else beneath the graves I lie

With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting.