To Pascal, you mistake the chains of ambition for true freedom when you say one must abandon hope of command. I found that while others fret over their private ailments or seek to rescue drowning men who are merely treading water, my own liberty came from attending only to what was immediately necessary. The world demands we be overseers of the poor, yet I chose instead to tend my own life with simple care. “Rescue the drowning and tie your shoe-strings.” This small act of attending to oneself is the only way to remain free while others remain bound by their own distractions.