Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.

May frames freedom not as limitless options but as a specifically human psychological capacity: the ability to interrupt impulse and create a reflective interval before acting. In that pause, a person can weigh meanings, values, and consequences rather than merely discharge tension or follow conditioning. The phrase “throw our weight” underscores commitment—freedom is enacted through choosing and investing oneself in a response, not through detached contemplation. In existential-psychological terms, this is where responsibility enters: the self is partly constituted by the choices it endorses. The quote thus links freedom to self-awareness, agency, and the courage to act deliberately amid anxiety and pressure.