This I believe

Radio Open Source did an hour on the well know NPR series "This I Believe." This was what I was believing at the time:

My reasoning tells me the trick is to strike a delicate balance between ambition and contentment. Ambition and contentment, I dangle between these two like a trapezes artist with tired arms - this is my destiny - this I believe.

I also believe the act of kissing your lovers lips and face should be improvised like a jazz solo; I believe Satchmo’s solos on the trumpet are a manifestation of his all encompassing smile; and the most precious smiles happen in moments of wordless chuckles that linger after a shared laugh among friends and family.

I believe Ralph Waldo Emerson when he writes, man “cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.”

(As a side note, I believe our Concord sage would have done well to eliminate the limiting pronouns “man” and “he” from those beautiful words).

The playwright August Wilson said the five themes that run through all his plays are honor, love, beauty, betrayal, and duty. This is what I believe about those themes:

love is an earnest exchange of vulnerability; honor is a gift a person gives to themself; beauty floats somewhere between Bridget Bardot and the sun drenched Fall foliage of Vermont; betrayal is that menacing noise outside my window, but it’s also the darkness inside my basement; duty is my humble payment to the piper.