Life, you can’t subdue me because I refuse to take your discipline too
seriously. When you try to hurt me, I laugh-and the laughter knows no
pain. I appreciate your joys wherever I find them; your sorrows
neither frighten nor discourage me, for there is laughter in my soul.

Temporary defeat does not make me sad. I simply set music to the words
of defeat and turn it into a song. Your tears are not for me, for I
like laughter much better, and because I like it, I use it as a
substitute for grief and sorrow and pain and disappointment.

Life, you are a fickle trickster-don’t deny it. You slipped the
emotion of love into my heart so that you might use it as a thorn with
which to prick my soul-but I learned to dodge your trap with laughter.
You tried to lure me with the desire for gold, but I have fooled you
by following the trail which leads to knowledge instead. You induced
me to build beautiful friendships-then converted my friends to enemies
so you may harden my heart, but I sidesteppe