Belief is crucial for us in the noisy world
It’s rather difficult in these noisy, confusing, nerve-racking days to
achieve the peace of mind in which to pause for a moment to reflect on what you
believe in. There’s so little time and opportunity to give it much
thought—though it is the thing we live by; and without it, without beliefs,
human existence today would hardly be bearable.
My own view of life, like
everyone else’s, is conditioned by personal experience. In my own case, there
were two experiences, in particular, which helped to shape my beliefs: years of
life and work under a totalitarian regime, and a glimpse of ball mill
war.
Living in a totalitarian land taught me to value highly—and
fiercely—the very things the dictators denied: tolerance, respect for others
and, above all, the freedom of the human spirit.
A glimpse of war filled me
with wonder not only at man’s courage and capacity for self-sacrifice, but at
his stubborn, marvelous will to preserve, to endure, to prevail—amidst the most
incredible savagery and suffering. When you saw people—civilians—who where
bombed out, or who, worse, had been hounded in the concentration camps or worked
to a frazzle in the slave-labor gangs—when you saw them come out of these
ordeals of horror and torture, still intact as human beings, with a will to go
on, with a faith still in themselves, in their fellow man, and in God, you
realized that man was indestructible. You appreciated, too, that despite the
corruption and cruelty of life, man somehow managed to retain great virtues:
love, honor, courage, self-sacrifice, compassion.
It filled you with a
certain pride just to be a member of the human race. It renewed your belief in
your fellow men.
Of course, there are many days (in this Age of Anxiety)
when a human being feels awfully low and discouraged. I myself find consolation
at such moments by two means: trying to develop a sense of history, and renewing
the quest for inner life.
I go back, for example, to reading Plutarch. He
reminds you that even in the golden days of Greece and Rome, from which so much
that is splendid in our own civilization derives, there was a great deal of what
we find so loathsome in life today: war, strife, corruption, treason,
double-crossing, intolerance, tyranny, rabble-rousing. Reading history thus
gives you perspective. It enables you to see your troubles relatively. You don’t
take them so seriously then.
Finally, I find that most true happiness comes
from one’s inner life; from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a
good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It
takes reflection and contemplation. And self-discipline. One must be honest with
oneself, and that’s not easy. (You have to have patience and understanding. And,
when you can, seek God.)
But the reward of having an inner life, which no
outside storm or evil turn of fortune can touch, is, it seems to me, a very
great one.
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