This I Believe

Last year, I slowly read a book that can only be described as sacred. The book is called This I Believe and was published by NPR. It is a collection of short personal essays each written by a different person about a topic that they believe in. Obviously, much thought and care have been invested in each essay.

The topics range from ‘Be Cool to the Pizza Dude’ to ‘Why I Don’t Believe in God.’ There are light-hearted essays as well as very serious essays. Each is special to the person who wrote it. The feelings behind the words are very evident.

Authors are generally regular Americans that collectively represent a nice cross section of America. Among others authors include a salesman, an engineer, a poet, a lawyer, a pianist, a telemarketer, and an immigrant. Occasionally, there is an essay by a famous person like John McCain, Bill Gates and Collin Powell.

The idea behind the book came from a similar book published in the 1950’s. So in this new edition of This I Believe a few essays from the original series have been added—Helen Keller, Albert Einstein and Jackie Robinson, to name a few.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:

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I’ve also read This I Believe II and the first line of the Introduction really made me think. It said, “Dangling at the end of each essay in this book is an implied question: ‘What would you say?’”

I’ve been thinking about what my entry would be in this sort of book. I’ve come up with a few abstract ideas…I’ll try to get them on paper. When I do, they will be on the blog. In the meantime, if you have time you should check the book from the library or read the essays on this website. I think you’ll like it.