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| Stephanie, Louisville, KY: Looking at my daughter, the clerk behind the counter asks, ``What is she?`` This is not the first time I have heard this question, and the stored up, smart aleck answers swirl through my mind. Inste... | more |
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| Sara Miles, San Francisco, CA: As heard on NPR`s All Things Considered, May 5, 2008. Until recently, I thought being a Christian was all about belief. I didn’t know any Christians, but I considered them people who believ... | more |
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| Donald Rosenstein, Bethesda, MD: As heard on NPR`s Weekend Edition Sunday, April 27, 2008. I believe in adaptation--that is, the same stimulus does not invariably elicit the same response over time. The first time I saw ... | more |
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| Maria Zapetis, Miami, FL: As featured on NPR’s website, April 21, 2008. Last year my beliefs changed. Until last summer I had a very comfortable life: winter vacations skiing and summer cruises. My parents spent ... | more |
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| Elie Wiesel, New York, NY: As heard on NPR`s All Things Considered, April 7, 2008. I remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to ... | more |
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| Chad, Santa Fe, NM: I believe that people are scared. I say this because of actions that I`ve witnessed in both other people and in myself. I recently had the good fortune of displaying my character to the federal go... | more |
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| Penn Jillette, Las Vegas, NV: As heard on NPR`s Morning Edition, November 21, 2005. I believe that there is no God. I`m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can`t prove a n... | more |
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| David, Lakewood, CA: When I was young, my understanding of events and people was simple: Things were good or bad. This made it easier for me to deal with the world around me. Then, when I became a young man, things seem... | more |
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| Joe, Red Hook, NY: One spring morning, as I was leaving the parish hall where I had taken the kids to Sunday school, a young homeless man met me at the door. He was hungry, and shivering in the cold of the brisk mornin... | more |
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| Cindy, College Park, MD: When Greta and I celebrate our twentieth anniversary this year, I believe we`ll do so as a married couple. Not in the legal sense v that is probably a generation away v but in the best, most important... | more |
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| Amy, Middletown, MD: The Best Kind of Grief is Gratitude The first thing breast cancer took from Isabelle was her smile. She woke up one morning and the left side of her mouth drooped and sagged. Her left eye was half... | more |
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| seeta, Providence, RI: I believe in the power of perfume. Perfume is meant to cover our natural scent, to hide whispers of sweat and the living body in subtle floral overtones. At 14, my desire to be sexy conflicted with my... | more |
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| Chris, Phoenix, AZ: The Peace That Comes from Animals It was September of 2003 and I was struggling to find work after experiencing corporate downsizing 23 months prior. I had really fallen on some of the grandest cha... | more |
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| James, Columbia, MO: The Power to Forget I believe in the power to forget. On December 12, 1969, my world changed forever. My father was murdered. I was 11 years old. In the middle of the night I woke to flashi... | more |
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| Ursula, Newport, OR: The first time I got drunk, I was in the eighth grade. On a Thursday evening, a gallon of Carlo Rossi Chianti sat in its usual place on our kitchen table. While my family lounged in the living room me... | more |
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| Amy, Des Plaines, IL: I believe that play can heal. As a Registered Play Therapist, I see how play can create relationships and help kids become more aware and more whole. James is one example. James was a young ga... | more |
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| Melissa, Bainbridge Island, WA: We Are All Connected Connect the dots by family, by skin color, by religious belief, by politics, by degrees of Kevin Bacon, by whatever method you choose·I believe that each and every human being ... | more |
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| Angela, Sugar City, ID: I believe in the dwindling generation that some people call our greatest and others simply call (old people). True, some of them may shuffle when they walk or need their driver`s licenses revoked, bu... | more |
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| Sarah Adams, Port Orchard, WA: As heard on NPR`s All Things Considered, May 16, 2005. If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: ``Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it`s good luck.`` Four principles guide... | more |
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| Quique Aviles, Washington, DC: As heard on NPR`s Morning Edition, July 31, 2006. I believe that addiction can kill me, but that writing and performing will save me. I am a poet and an actor. I am also a crack addict an... | more |
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| Martha Leathe, Eliot, ME: As heard on NPR`s Weekend Edition Sunday, March 16, 2008. Several weeks ago I got a call from a good friend whose husband had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. “Do we tell the kids,... | more |
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| Ann Karasinski, Belmont, MI: As heard on NPR`s Morning Edition, February 12, 2007. You don`t expect your child to grow up to be a heroin addict. From the moment of her birth, you have hopes and dreams about the future, ... | more |
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| Michelle Gardner-Quinn, Burlington, VT: As heard on NPR`s Weekend Edition Sunday, August 5, 2007. I believe in upholding reverence for all life. I believe that humanity has a responsibility to the earth and to the life that we sha... | more |
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| Lawrence, Washington, DC: I believe that what my father told me as a child is ultimately true: ``There`s nothing new under the sun. All matter just changes form.`` He introduced me to this idea at the age of 8 or 9 before I h... | more |
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| Eldee, Asheboro, NC: The Choice to Change On a bright fall day seven years ago, my mother left my father. He had been abusive for most of their 47 years of married life. My mother stood at the door of her house with a ... | more |
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