2005-07-18 - 12:23 p.m.
This I Believe
NPR has a feature called This I Believe, a series of essays which I find fascinating. (I particularly enjoyed the essay by Physicist Brian Greene.)
I have been listening to these essays read by their authors periodically on my morning commute, and I enjoy them immensely, but it gets me to thinking that my beliefs are generally undefined.
At first, I was thinking that I do not believe in much, which is somewhat true. I am more likely to question than to subscribe, but even my devotion to skepticism is a belief. (And on and on that drunken bar conversation could go ...)
So, other than skepticism, do I have defined conviction? I wonder about this. I have the little daily beliefs that I do not frame and mount and hang or wear on a tee shirt or bumper sticker. My beliefs do not cleave me to a group or a movement or a religion or a political party. I am too doubtful, too questioning, too scattered in opinion. I do not like being told what to believe. I hate clubhouse mentality. I am distrustful of human motivation.
I have been seduced. This series is fascinating. I want to ask all my friends what they would put in their belief essay. What would the people with whom I spend time say are their personal philosophies. What would they choose to define themselves morally? It is curious. It is not just what one believes, it is what they choose to reveal to others. And it requires definition that is not pre-fabricated by a church or a publicist.
I would like to hear essays written by politicians, celebrities, CEOs, life sentence prisoners, drug addicts, soccer moms. Without the help of the PR people or spoon feeding of the media or churches or self-help books. I�d like to hear peoples observations of themselves and their actions. It is the ultimate voyeurism. It is why I read.
