I Believe, Therefore I Do

On the heels of Christmas with its mix of sacredness and enchantment, I’m setting out to write something here about the act of believing in something and how closely it is, or perhaps is not, aligned with leading a good life.

Of course just about any fool would say that the quality of anything flowing from a particular source must depend primarily on the legitimacy of the source – or set of beliefs – itself. I would maintain, however, that a lot can happen along the way or, put differently, the proof is in the pudding.

Some of my own beliefs are kind of murky, but I can say at the outset that I most definitely believe that it is difficult to write anything requiring any concentration when one’s family is all about, coming and going and either needing actual attention or just by their very presence indicating that they might need some attention, or at least perhaps some food of the cooked variety.

Anyway, lately everything from The Polar Express to candlelit church services — here comes a leap — to a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian and—another big jump — a new movie by a teenage pop megastar is reminding me that we place a high value on having beliefs that help propel us through our daily lives, sweep us up into a throbbing excitement, or perhaps simply give us a solid floor to stand upon. It all has me wondering whether being able to say “I am a believer” or, in the case of the megastar’s fans, “I am a Belieber” offers someone an almost immediate stamp of approval. Surely, all beliefs are not created equal…or are they?

On the website for that radio program called “This I Believe” you can find a collection of thousands of essays people have written. The idea is not for the writer/speaker to just take any old belief lying around the house, but to embrace one that could be considered a “core” belief – something that serves as a pretty constant guidepost, or even as a sun radiating light and heat, day after day. Essays have been categorized within about one hundred themes, from “addiction” (?) to “family” to “nature” to  “work” – you name it. As you scan through them, you’ll see that people sound pretty darn nice and their motivations just about completely positive. Not to rain on the parade or anything, but aren’t there at least some people out there who would admit to having a core part of themselves that isn’t so pure? As one reader on the site put it, “Maybe some meanies or troublemakers could have explained what beliefs made them tick, too.” I agree that would balance things out a bit, but of course then they would have to be considered Believers with a Twist.  And then the likes of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins would rush in to make sure we know about all the inherent dangers in allowing all kinds of beliefs, often clothed in religious garb, to run rampant out there.

Don’t get me wrong…I really admire people from all walks of life and all faiths who can clearly articulate their beliefs and then, even better, demonstrate them in actions that benefit their families as well as the larger society. A recent trip to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. reminded me about some of the beautiful things that have sprung from beliefs of all kinds. Take the Wright Brothers and their magnificent and unwieldy plane, for instance. Good old Orville (or maybe it was Wilbur) had the nerve to lie right across the thing and hope for the best when it first went up. Then, over at the Museum of the American Indian, you can go to an exhibit called “Our Universe” and, upon entering a series of rooms, be surrounded by manifestations of eight different indigenous cosmologies — that is, learn how various tribes from both North and South America have traditionally envisioned their worlds and the forces at work in them. You start off in each segment with a diagram, generally showing some kind of very specific system of beliefs about how forces in Nature align with certain human characteristics, and then the rest of the display – one room leading to the next– shows how the people live out and reinforce this understanding. There’s no way of telling, really, how much peace and harmony result directly from the bedrock of beliefs, but it’s pretty compelling stuff. And you can’t leave the exhibit without being amazed by the tremendous diversity of ways in which different cultures, even within the larger “category” of Native Americans, try to make sense of their worlds and set rules for themselves.

I don’t know if the reason that Justin Bieber’s new movie, Believe, is tanking at the box office has anything to do with the fact that he does not in fact offer a convincing cosmology of his own. The guy really can sing, that’s for sure, but maybe he (more likely his handlers) ought not to be stretching his influence beyond the stage so much as to claim that his fans now share a whole religion or something. I mean, are they really apt to organize themselves to do something for the larger good or are they content — which is really fine – to lose themselves in the power of the music?

As we head into 2014, here’s hoping we can believe in all the twinkling possibilities that the New Year will bring.  Right now I see it as a blanket of new fallen snow, glistening in the sun.