# Quote — Steve Toltz, A Fraction Of The Whole

> While Terry joined the others in the pool, I subjected myself to a dreadful thing called musical chairs, another cruel game. There's one chair short, and when the music stops you have to run for a seat. The life lessons never stop at a children's party. The music blares. You never know when it's going to stop. You're on edge the whole game; the tension is unbearable. Everyone dances in a circle around the ring of chairs, but it's no happy dance. Everyone has his eyes on the mother over by the radio, her hand poised on the volume control. Now and then a child wrongly anticipates her and dives for a chair. He's shouted at. He jumps off the seat again. He's a wreck. The music plays on. The children's faces are contorted in terror. No one wants to be excluded. The mother taunts the children by pretending to reach for the volume. The children wish they were dead. The game is an analogy for life: there are not enough chairs or good times to go around, not enough food, not enough joy, nor beds nor jobs nor laughs nor friends nor smiles nor money nor clean air to breathe...and yet the music goes on.

- Author: [Steve Toltz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz.md)
- Book: [A Fraction Of The Whole](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#The_Game) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/while-terry-joined

## More from this book

> It's hard enough to go through life disappointing yourself every second day, but disappointing others takes it out of you too. That's why you should never answer the phone or the door. So you don't have to say no to whoever's on the other side.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/its-hard-enough.md)

> People always say, "It's good to be a part of a something bigger than yourself," but you already are. You're part of a huge thing. The whole of humanity. That's enormous. But you can't see it, so you pick, what? An organization? A culture? A religion? That's not bigger than you. It's much, much smaller!

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/people-always-say.md)

> I think all people on their deathbeds should not forgive themselves for not committing suicide, even one day earlier. To let yourself be murdered by Nature's hand is the only real apathy there is.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/i-think-all.md)