`That's very acute, I must admit. But how do we know the Die won't flip me off in some new direction?'
`Because you've got a purpose now. A goal. You control the options, right?'
'True.'
`You think dice therapy's hot stuff, right?'
'Sometimes.'
`You aren't going to risk the advance of dice therapy for another roll in the hay with some dumb broad. You're not.
You know now what you want.'
`A smart broad?'
`The advance of dice therapy. The advance of dice therapy. It gives your life precisely that foundation which it's been
lacking since you rejected your father in the form of Freud and Dr. Mann and began this random rebellion.'
`But a good dice therapist must lead a random life.'
`But he's got to meet the patient regularly. He's got to show up ' `Mmmmm.'
`He's got to listen. He's got to teach.'
`Hmmm.'
`Moreover, you've got Lil trying dice therapy, your kids. Your new self is being accepted. You don't have to play the
fool anymore.'
`I see.'
`I even accept the new Luke. Arlene has introduced me to several, Ah, positions of dice therapy. I spoke to Boggles.
Dice therapy makes sense.'
`1t does?'
`Of course it does.'
`But it will tend to break down the sense of a stable self so necessary for a human to feel secure.'
`Only superficially. Actually, it builds a dice-student's - Jesus, I'm using your terms already - a patient's strength by
forcing him into continual conflict with others.'
`Builds ego strength?'
'Sure. You're not afraid of anything now, are you?'
`Well, I don't know.'
`You've made an ass of yourself so many times that you can't be hurt.'
'Ahh, very acute.'
'That's ego strength.'
`Without any ego.'
`Semantics, but it's what we're after. I can't be hurt because I analyze everything. A scientist examines his wound, his
wounder and his healer with equal neutrality.'
`And the dice-student obeys the dice decision, good and bad, with equal passion.'
`Right,' he said.
`But what kind of a society will it be if people begin consulting the Die to make their decisions?'
`No problem. People are only as eccentric as their options and most of the people who will go through dice therapy are
going to develop just like you; that's what makes your case so important. They're all going to go through a period of
chaotic rebellion and then move into a lifetime of moderate, rational use of the dice consistent with some overall
purpose.'
'That's very nice, Jake,' I said and leaned back on the couch from the alert sitting position I had been in.
`I'm depressed,' I added.
`Moderate, rational use of the dice is rational and moderate and every man should try it.'
`But the dicelife should be unpredictable and irrational and immoderate. If it isn't, it isn't dicelife.'
`Nonsense. You're following the dice these days, right?'
`Yes.'
`You're seeing your patients, living with your wife, seeing me regularly, paying your bills, talking to your friends,
obeying the laws: you're leading a healthy, normal life. You're cured.'
`A healthy, normal life -'