This I Believe

10 Beautiful Things

6. Choice

A week ago I was asked to write an essay on the topic "This I Believe". No other guidelines, no suggestions except a word count. 500-600 words. How, I asked, can a person possibly sum up their entire belief system in 600 words? Every day we wake up and do things according to what we believe. We write essays, take stances, think, all based on the things we hold to be true. For very religious people, perhaps this is easy. They can sum up their beliefs in one word, a name, really. But what about for those people who don't know what they believe? What about those people who never thought about it in words, only in feelings and actions?

Thinking about what I believe in was the hardest thing I've ever done. I believe in so many things. I believe in people, that no matter how horrible a situation might seem, someday it will not be so horrible. That things will always get better.

I believe in beauty found both on magazine covers, and in nature. I think the only real beauty is the one we ascribe to things, to people. I believe my mother is one of the most beautiful people in the world. I believe my best friends are the most beautiful people.

I have found that there is nothing a person cannot express in words, so long as she has the right words and the right approach. Some things can't be said straight out. That's why we have books, to lead us to revelations that would never be the same when said in plain words.

All these things make up a part of my system, my philosophy. I do not believe in a God but I believe in something that we won't ever understand, some web that lies beneath the surface that no one can see or feel. I believe in things I cannot understand, and things that I never want to. But all the same, is that the most important part of my system? The belief in the unknown?

I decided that no, my greatest belief has always been the cause of all these other things. The reason that I do not believe in God, the reason that I believe in words and the mysterious: choice.

I think one of the most beautiful things is the ability to choose. A painter chooses his colors, as a writer chooses her words. A politician chooses to sign the bill, and an activist chooses to boycott a product. In the end, the force behind all of these things--even the force that compels us to give up this force--is choice. There is nothing immortal except what we choose to make so. To me, that is beautiful.

"I believe that man's noblest endowment is his capacity to change. Armed with reason, he can see two sides and choose: He can be divinely wrong. I believe in man's right to be wrong" (Allison and Gediman 19-20).