佚名/Anonymous
Ever since one midnight, in nineteen hundred and nine—when I frst heard my mother crying—I have been groping for beliefs to help me through the rough going and confusions of life. My dad's voice was low and troubled as he tried to comfort Mother—and in their anguish they both forgot the nearness of my bedroom. I overheard them. I was only seven then, and while their problem of that time has long since been solved and forgotten, the big discovery I made that night is still right with me—life is not all hearts and fowers. It's hard and cruel for most of us much of the time. We all have troubles—they just differ in nature, that's all. And that leads to my frst belief.
I believe the human race is very, very tough—almost impossible to discourage. If it wasn't, then why do we have such words as“laugh”and“sing”and“music”and“dance”—in the language of all mankind since the beginning of recorded time?This belief makes me downright proud to be human being.
Next, I believe there is good and evil in all of us. Thomas Mann comes close to expressing what I'm trying to say with his carefully worded sentence about the“frightfully radical duality”between the brain and the beast in man—in all of us.
This belief helps me because so long as I remember that there are certain forces of evil ever present in me—and never forget that there is also a divine spark of goodness in me, too—then I fnd that the“score”of my bad mistakes and regrets at the end of each day is greatly reduced.“Forewarned of evil is half the battle against it.”
I believe in trying to be charitable, in trying to understand and forgive people, especially in trying to forgive very keen or brilliant people. A man may be a genius but he can still do things that practically break your heart.
I believe most if not all of our very fnest thoughts and many of our fnest deeds must be kept to ourselves alone—at least until after we die. This used to confuse me. But now I realize that by their very nature, these finest things we do and cannot talk about are a sort of secret preview of a better life to come.