René's regrown teeth and time as a belief

To give Frederick pause and hope, the Wonders reveal that René grew three sets of teeth as a child in most of his front teeth.

Having chipped a front tooth deeply, he watched the chip shrink as the tooth grew, filing the tooth down to make it even whenever it grew back, only for the chip to reappear within six months to a year — raising the question of whether the teeth grew or receded.

René believes he can grow his teeth and has done so, though not consistently.

Frederick's sense that growth is slow leads them to say that the speed of growth is itself perception, and perception creates allowance: René firmly believed he could grow teeth but also believed it was limited by time, so time had to pass; without the belief in time he could simply have grown them.

They insist changing this belief is no harder than believing one can write with the left hand rather than the right — it only feels harder because time is applied as a filter to virtually everything in life.

Choice is the easy part; it is the justification that goes back and forth.